Things That Change
by Blue Jeans
Summary: [COMPLETE] Yuuichiro unexpectedly dies in 2041. For his last wish, his family journeys to Tokyo to leave his ashes at a mysterious shrine. There, through the eyes of his second daughter, the mystery of the 100 year sleep will be unraveled.
1. A Daughter's Anger

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

"Who's that lady in black down the hall?" Kumada Akina whispered to her teary-eyed sister. "I've never seen her before." 

Kumada Hiroshi, who was sitting in between his two sisters, cleared his throat and gently turned away the pointing finger. "It's not polite to point, Akina Chan."

Akina made a face at him, "You should treat your older sister with more respect," she snubbed him. "Akina Sensei or Akina San would do."

Hiroshi raised a cool brow at this comment. "Only if you act your age, Older Sister _Chan_," he countered briskly, the words of honor spiced with hints of mockery.

Akina opened her mouth to angrily retort but caught herself as Nami sent them both a harsh glare with her bleary eyes before settling a gentle, pointed hand on their mother's shaking shoulders. Silent and solemn, both siblings settled grudgingly to glaring at each other instead before turning to the white wall before them.

"She looks young, doesn't she?" Akina asked at last, when she couldn't contain herself anymore. "I wonder how Father would come to know such a woman." Akina felt Hiroshi sigh heavily beside her before he rose abruptly.

"If you will excuse us, Mother." Hiroshi bowed respectfully to their teary eyed mother but it was Nami who dismissed them with weariness etched on her face.

"What do you mean us? Who's us--" Akina demanded brashly. Surprise came over her face when she felt her brother's strong fingers wrap around her arm, lifting and then dragging her away. "Let go of me, you brute!" She struggled till they passed the lady and turned down the hallway. Akina finally jerked herself away with a glare. "How dare you--?"

"Did you not see how much you were hurting Mother with those comments?" Hiroshi exploded, his face completely changed from the calm and cool facade he always wore to anger, the lines of such strong emotions were etched deeply around his mouth and eyes. "How dare I? You were never mindful of your mouth, Akina, but you've gone too far this time!"

"How dare you accuse me of something like that?" Akina sputtered. "Father was always away, he deserves no more respect from us now than he did when he was healthy."

"Akina!" Hiroshi raised his hand threateningly, and for a moment they stood frozen, waiting for the other to move. Hiroshi sighed and turned, punching the wall behind him harshly. "He is still our father," he finally said with quiet resignation that hid his emotions.

Akina glared at his back, feeling the moment of danger passing. "Unlike you, younger brother, I won't lie to myself and pretend that I don't know what's going on. I will never accept that, I will never forgive him for what he did!" Blue eyes turned away. "And that woman, she was watching us. I could feel it. She was the reason he left." The slap stunned both of them, the sound echoing down the hallway.

But Kumada Hiroshi did not feel sorry for it one bit. "You are so selfish, Akina," he finally said, eyes cast down to the floor. "Just like our Father," Akina's eyes snapped up at him, her mouth agape with outrage. "Until you collect yourself to be more responsible, I will not allow such words you sprout near Mother again." Before Akina could recover to say anything else, Hiroshi turned and left.

"Baka!" Akina finally shouted after her brother, legs shaking. Stumbling back against the white wall of the hospital, she then fell to her knees. She quickly covered her face with her hands to hide the unwanted tears that fell in both anger and those uncontrolled emotions she dared not name. "Baka," she whispered to the lonely hallway.

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"I have a secret that I wish to tell to you._

_Only you. I trust you, and you alone, with_

_such a secret. It is the truth, you see?_

_It might hurt you too- this secret._

_But... it will set me free."_

**Chapter 1**

**_A Daughter's Anger_**

It was raining and dreary. Everyone wore black except Kumada Iku. People whispered a little at her conservative white kimono that stood out like a beacon in the sea of black suits. "She had always been a child of the past," one observer described it later. And the setting had been like one from the past as well, the whole funeral, in fact. All the way up to the point when Iku had told those around her that they would not be keeping the ashes of her deceased husband, but that they were going on a pilgrimage to Tokyo, where Kumada Yuuichiro had said a temple still stood. "Someone there will know what to do," he told his wife before his death. "Just tell them, Kumada Yuuichiro has returned and wishes for forgiveness."

It confused them all, for the Kumadas had a family plot to bury him in as with all the Kumadas before him. It was, and had always been, a symbol of their family's wealth and influence. But it was not what Kumada Yuuichiro had wished for. So Iku had agreed to travel from Kobe to Tokyo and take her children and the last of her husband's earthly remains with her. But first, there was a headstone to be put into the cemetery, in honor to the Kumada name. After everyone was gone, Akina found herself to be the last to leave. "Baka, never knew why you loved lilies so much. They're such a depressing flower for such a philandering man." She muttered but she set the white flower onto the headstone with a heavy heart.

A part of her could never forgive her father, for what he had done to the family. Still, there was no helping it when it came to the tears in her eyes. The cool rain drenched her black hair and the expensive black suit that the maid had picked out that morning. She was glad, glad that she could lie and say that it was not tears staining her cheeks but rain. Anyway, she couldn't tell the difference nowadays. Did it really matter? "They're Casablancas, you know?" A beautiful voice spoke from behind her, and Akina blinked in realization that the rain had stopped falling on her and it was getting cold. "They're a very special type of lilies."

"Huh?" Blue eyes turned to see the familiar figure of a dark-haired woman whose attire was as surprising as Kumada Iku's. A simple black-white kimono adorned the stranger's small, but graceful figure along with a sode-kaburi covering the other's hair in silk-white. It was not at all like the plain but elegant one that her mother wore, yet the style of dress was too similar for Akina's taste. "Y-you're the lady from the hospital that we saw... the woman the nurse spoke of."

Akina rose and found herself towering over the slight form of the Japanese woman, whose features were breath-taking, even from her perspective. The woman had a fine boned face that was framed by straight, black hair. The other carried herself with a confident knowing that built a powerful presence in the small frame. And the stranger emulated the image of traditional beauty to the very tips of her long eyelashes, all except for the foreign and yet exotic eyes set upon a face of alabaster. And those eyes, there were fire in those strange, dark eyes. The hue was of a purple sheen over a blackness that appeared to be fathomless. Akina had never met anyone with such eyes. "I was visiting an old friend," the stranger answered before shifting to have a better view of the headstone. "It would have been his birthday today, you know?" Akina blinked in surprise as she watched the lady tilt her head with a sorrow laden glance.

"Who are you? How did you know my father?" Akina asked tentatively, though inside she seethed with resentment and suspicion at this unknown person before her.

"An old, old friend," the other answered. Fingers reached and caressed a petal of the white flower. "I can't believe he still wanted these," the stranger reminisced.

Akina didn't realize she slapped the woman's hand away until it had happened. Yet, she couldn't find it in herself to be ashamed or sorry. "Are you his mistress? Because if you are, we really don't want you here!"

"Akina!" Hiroshi appeared just then. "How rude to say that to a stranger--" His breath caught when he caught sight of their stranger though. "M-Miss, are you alright?"

"Get out of here," Akina growled, pointing a threatening finger at the bland face of the woman before her. Her annoyance grew at her younger brother's love-sick expression. "Get out and don't come back. Haven't you ruined our family enough? Go find another rich, pathetic, old man to leech off of."

Hiroshi sucked in his breath in alarm, "Akina!" he scolded angrily. "I can't believe--"

It was the soft, grim laughter that caught them off-guard. "Is that your opinion of your own father?" The woman paused as she studied both brother and sister. "I shared similar resentment for mine a long time ago." The woman smiled, her hand settled over the smooth, wooden handle of her parasol with careful grace. "I am Mars Reiko, and I am no one's mistress." Akina and Hiroshi glanced at her with apprehensive eyes. "I depend on no one, especially not men. It was your father who lived freely at my temple for a while in his youth. My grandfather had thought him a crude student to be had and not the brightest of sorts, but Yuuichiro was a kind hearted boy and stubborn to the bone. He meant well then," she said, glancing at the grave stone fondly. "When he left, I-- my grandfather and I-- we missed him, we did. That was all there was to that story."

"Mars Reiko-- San?" Hiroshi blinked, unsure where he had heard the name right. "Y-you're that idol singer, aren't you?"

The dark-haired woman smiled, "Once, I had been a priestess," she answered vaguely. "We were children together then, your father and I."

"Mars Reiko San? I-I bought your CDs a few months back." Akina blinked. "Y-you've seen my father at a... a temple?"

Reiko looked at them surprised. "I worked with him, yes."

"Why are you here, Mars Reiko San? To pay your respect?" Akina asked incredulously. "I don't believe you! My father has never set foot in a temple, and he certainly does not associate with a woman without taking advantage of them, or my mother's poor heart!"

Reiko raised a brow at this. "Your mother made her own decisions. Knowing the things that she knew, she was not at a disadvantage when she had chosen what she did. When it came to your father, she was never taken advantage of without the full consent she gave freely herself," the woman before her said with her dark eyes sad but clear. "We all chose what we did then, it was how it was."

Akina angrily threw her hand out, and it would have caught Mars Reiko in the cheek if the woman hadn't stopped her. Pale hands, delicate looking but calloused on the inside, startled Akina. "I let you slap me once," Reiko said, eyes narrowing slightly. "Don't think I'll let you do so again when your only reason is so pointless and selfish. Nobody slaps me twice without my deserving it, especially when they move so slowly that anyone can avoid such a careless attack."

Angered, Akina struck out again and again, each time stopped by the woman with easy grace. But by the third blow, her brother was dragging her away. "Let me go!" Akina cried out in rage, struggling to attack Mars Reiko once more. "Let me go, damn you!" She finally settled when she realized she wasn't going anywhere when Hiroshi and her had fallen into the mud together in a tangled and messy heap. Both Akina and her brother were getting wet exceptionally fast in the downpour, and muddied as well from the fall, but Hiroshi would not let her go.

"Stop it!" Hiroshi finally said harshly in her ear. Apparently, he had been yelling at her for some time because his voice seemed hoarser than before. "Stop it, Akina! Stop making such a spectacle of yourself while you shame this family, and at such a time… Stop being like Father! Why are you so absorbed in your own pain? Why can't you look beyond that to see the people you're hurting?"

Akina cried, breaking down. "Idiot!" she shouted with renewed strength as she tried to get away from her brother's harsh embrace. "I'm nothing like him!"

"I agree." Mars Reiko's quiet and yet beautiful voice surprised them both. "Yuuichiro never amounted to much of anything in his life because he was selfish, but he never fought for any of the things he desired for either. He never liked confrontations, and yet, here now is his daughter who thrives upon it." Akina glared at Mars Reiko through wet, black bangs. A small part of her was satisfied to see that there was mud spatters on the beautiful kimono the other woman wore that must have resulted from their scuffle.

"How do you know our father so well?" Hiroshi asked in surprise. "He was seventy years old when he died. You cannot have known him for more than ten, twenty years at most!"

Reiko blinked at them in surprise. "Huh?" She smiled a bit sadly down at them, at Akina's solemn face and Hiroshi's curious one. "That's my secret," she said. "But it's not one that I share alone. So, I can't tell."

"Whore," Akina muttered under her breath when no further information came from the woman's lips.

Reiko's dark eyes narrowed angrily then. "Don't insult others for situations you don't understand," The other bowed to the rising Hiroshi. "You have my condolences, Kumada San." Mars Reiko straightened and smiled ruefully. "It was nice meeting with both of you. I will be seeing you in the future." With that, the other turned and left.

"What?" Akina exploded. "I don't want to ever see you again!" she declared rudely to the other woman's retreating back. But Mars Reiko only shot Akina an uncaring glance over her shoulder as she left.

Hiroshi sighed almost dreamily, "Now that's a lady." At Akina's snort however, Hiroshi promptly smacked her on the head. "That was amazingly stupid," Hiroshi lectured. "Do you even know what you're doing anymore, Akina? Have a little more control! You're turning twenty-two in two months, so stop acting like an animal. We're not four anymore, you realize that?"

Akina glared at the retreating figure of Mars Reiko. "I won't forgive either of them," she turned to her brother. "Like Father must have learned before, I don't forgive liars and deceivers. And that especially means _her_!"

"How do you know Reiko San is the other woman, anyway?" Hiroshi demanded in annoyance.

"Because," Akina thought to a few months back when she had to clean her father's study. There had been photographs of Mars Reiko (some with Yuuichiro in it) that her father had hid in his drawers, ones that Akina discovered by herself. "I know."

**- - - - -**

Lesta Gin tapped at the key of her computer with some amount of interest, but her intensity was disturbed by the voice of her unwelcome friend. "Well," Akina demanded as she leaned over Gin's shoulder. "Did you find anything, yet?" Akina asked over the music that Gin insisted upon listening to while she tapped away at the computer.

The dirty-blonde haired woman shot a glare at Akina, whose face was next to her own. With great annoyance at the other's pestering proximity, Gin answered with icy reproach. "If I didn't grow up with you, Akina Chan, I wouldn't know how I could have been able to stand you for so long."

Akina stuck her tongue out at her friend playfully. "You know you love me!"

"Unfortunately," Gin replied with a resigned sigh, "that was also not my choice."

"So what have you found, if not everything I've asked of you?" Akina challenged.

Gin shot her another annoyed glance before popping up a screen. "Mars Reiko San's been a pop artist for five years in the industry. She rose to prominence pretty quickly and the model agencies and such immediately picked her up. I can see why though," Gin sighed enviously as she scrolled down the documents she collected. "It was difficult to find any really concrete information on her. There are a lot of bios, but no actual year of birth, which I noticed with some surprising frequency." Gin nodded to herself, ignoring the curious glances Akina shot her. "But a lot of people assume that she's in her early twenties, but her agent has yet to disclose anything."

"Agent?" Akina asked.

Gin grinned at this. "Yup, and you'd never guess who it is, either?"

"Who?" Akina asked wide-eyed.

"Hidekai Kyoko San," Gin replied easily, "a former student of Tokyo University. She's apparently one of the university's last students before they converted it to JTI-U."

"What a silly change in name for a once distinguished university," Akina commented, but her comment was easily ignored. "Still, Hidekai Kyoko San? That's Nami's fianc's cousin, if I remember correctly," Akina thought out loud to herself.

"Ignoring the confusion of your family tree, you still picked a very interesting person to look up," Gin answered instead with a roll of her eyes. "There's really no record of a Mars Reiko before this, though, so I thought it was a stage name that she must have picked up earlier on. So, without any leads, I begin looking up the list of shrines your father might have hopped around to in his earlier ages. Another rather strange anomaly did pop up from that search. Well, there is--" Gin paused "--but there is no way that the two are the same woman!" Akina was confused and expressed it in her glance to her friend's speculative face. "You said that Mars Reiko San told you and Hiroshi Kun that your father stayed at her temple?" Akina nodded slowly in agreement. "Well, there were several temples your father had resided in while in his twenties." Akina blinked in surprise at this information.

_ That woman wasn't lying then?_

"But here's the part that confused me," Gin told Akina with a disturbed air about her. "There was a shrine by the name of Hikawa Jinja, owned by a Matsuko Masakazu." At this the picture of an old man appeared. "He died in 2006 and left his shrine to his granddaughter -- a Hino Rei San." There was a small, black and white picture from school records that Gin dug up somehow on the web, the only one to accompany the young lady's profile. "I couldn't find a trace of her background really, except to this really old Catholic girl school that's been around for decades. But the woman in this picture must be in her fifties or sixties now if she was around when your father lived there."

"The Mars Reiko San that you and I know is most definitely in her early twenties," Akina pondered.

"Bing-o," Gin agreed cheerfully. "As I said, it's not possible."

Akina tapped her chin. "Could it be her daughter that visited me and Hiroshi Chan, then?"

Gin scratched her head. "I want to say yes, Akina Chan, except there are no records of Hino Rei San having a child, or even marrying. The pictures are too disturbingly similar. The girl and the older women look almost like the same woman, only at two different stages in life. It's hard to believe the two of them are not related," Gin said, grinning a bit mischievously, "Unless you start believing in reincarnation, or the Doppelganger Theory. Other than that, the trail for Hino Rei ends when she turned twenty-two. No records were kept, apparently. Not after she graduated from university with a Bachelor's in Political Science."

"Political Science?" Akina inquired.

"Apparently, her father was an important politician in the day," Gin explained.

"Ah!" Akina exclaimed, "I remember now! There was a Hino Akira San we read about in modern politics when I was in high school!" Akina blinked in surprise. "But, that was quite a few decades back," she whispered in confusion.

"Exactly," Gin nodded. "Her story and the one she told you don't match." Thinking about it some more, Gin then started to shake her head. "Actually, they do match," she remarked, scratching her head once more in confusion, "but the implications that came with the matching are too impossible to be true."

"You know, she might be a bit crazy in the head," Akina joked. "She might have gotten her mother's story and her own mixed up! Or she's really a reincarnation gone completely wrong!"

Gin rolled her eyes at this. "You're crazy in the head, Akina Chan. Sometimes I don't know why I hang out with you, knowing this to be true."

Akina stuck her tongue out at her friend in retaliation. "No one else can stand you, that's why," she remarked saucily. "Anyway, you're the one who's crazy in the head."

Gin rolled her eyes again. "You sure you graduated from high school, Akina Chan?" Gin leaned back in her chair and stared at the white ceiling. "Sometimes, you act like such a kid. Makes me wonder who let you graduate university with that attitude in tact."

Akina glared at Gin for that one. "At least I don't work at a job I detest, Gin Chan," she answered with sugared venom in her tone.

But Gin was used to Akina's short temper as well as her arguments. "Ah, the life of the wealthy. I can't compete with such lazy luxuries that you take advantage of everyday!" Gin grieved, shooting a pointed look at Akina's expensive purse that was haphazardly thrown onto Gin's bed. "The rest of us must slave away just to earn a living, you know? While others just live spoiled and rotten for the rest of their pampered lives."

Akina was outraged but she could do no more than humph at her friend, choosing not to continue the argument any further.

**- - - - -**

The train station was as crowded as ever. Winter was coming and the holiday decorations were already being put up by the stores and offices. Kumada Iku had put off the family pilgrimage so that every child of hers would be available to make the trip. The bundle of clothes that Akina brought from home took up more space than she had expected since the weather in Tokyo was reportedly colder than Kobe this year, and the city was expecting snow before they could take leave from it back to Kobe.

"I can't believe we'll be missing the Luminarie!" Akina groused. Her form was hunched over her leather bag sullenly. "Gin Chan and I were so looking forward to it. I mean, Mother, do we really need to make this trip?"

Nami was the one who spoke this time, though Hiroshi shot Akina his disapproving glance. "Akina Chan, please control yourself," Nami said in her soft, authoritative voice. Of the family, other than their father, no one could silence Akina as effectively as Nami could.

Akina sighed and crossed her arms over her chest rebelliously though she said nothing. "I made a promise to your father, you know?" Iku finally spoke when her children silenced. Between her two hands was the urn that held the last of her husband's remains. There was great weariness in the lines of Kumada Iku's slight frame and more lines on her aged face. "We must go, all of us, to that place that changed everything."

"Eh?" Akina perked up interested. "Changed everything?"

Iku smiled ruefully at her second daughter. "Yes, Akina Chan, everything." Mother spoke no more after that little speech, ignoring all of Akina's careful prodding that soon deteriorated to bold questions. But no amount of coercion worked and Akina spent the rest of the train ride looking out the window at the passing of fields, trees, and towns.

The conductor finally announced their arrival at Tokyo, making the excited Akina ready to leap out of her seat. "Come on, everyone!" Akina announced with cheerful determination. "We got a temple to visit!"

But Kumada Iku only chuckled a little at her second daughter's antics, the first in a while, as Nami and Hiroshi shared a knowing smile. "Baka," Hiroshi spoke, "we all need rest before we go. We have a hotel to check into first."

Akina pouted, but complied when she saw the tired shadows beneath her mother's eyes. "Alright," she gave reluctantly. "Let's go then to the hotel!"

Iku smiled, knowing that her family's been worried about her since her husband's death. It was lonelier somehow, knowing he was gone for good. And yet, he had never really been there. Iku looked at the urn sitting on her lap. It held the last of the man who had once made her heart tremble like a frightened rabbit. For such a simple container, it held with it also, the last of his secrets.

Kumada Iku, then Haruko Iku, knew from day one that she would never have Kumada Yuuichiro's heart. He had told her so later, when she had tried to force him to see her for once. But even then, he only saw one woman, even after three children and endless years, he still loved that woman above all others. She was a woman who cared for him as much as he did for Iku. It was an irony not lost to Iku, not even after all these years. She had thought then, as a girl, that he would one day realize the fruitlessness of his desires and turn to her at last. But, Iku ruefully thought, it was herself who should have saw the foolishness of her own desires. Yuuichiro and her, they were indeed alike in too many ways, ways married people should never have in common.

"Mother?" Nami leaned over cautiously to get a better view of her mother's face in the shadowed darkness. "Are you alright?"

Iku forced a smile upon her face. "Yes, Nami Chan," Iku nodded, "I'm fine."

Nami nodded politely to show she would not push the matter whether or not she believed her mother's words. For that, Iku was thankful. Nami was born a polite, serious, and quiet child. Her fiancé, Hidekai Kiyoshi was a much looser person, though some considered him a bit too loose. Iku had liked how Kiyoshi could make a room light up with a smile, but she had seen her daughter stand quietly beside the man like the darkness deepening next to the bright candle. Yuuichiro liked the match from the start and pushed for his daughter to marry the man. Not because Kiyoshi was successful or well off, but because Yuuichiro said he did Nami good. She needed the light in her life, their serious Nami, Yuuichiro used to say. But Iku thought it was not a relationship that should have ended in marriage.

Iku had played a shadow to her husband's desires, and knew no woman would want that in the end. Sometimes the light could hurt a person. After all, prince charming wasn't for everyone. Nami would have done well if she found herself a kind, quiet man who could understand her silence, her seriousness. But Kiyoshi and Nami was what Yuuichiro had wanted, and even when it came to her children, Iku could not help but be swayed by her husband's desires. She was a weak woman, Iku knew that. It was not something in her that she was proud of, far from it, but she knew also that she had not the strength to change it even if she wanted to.

The cab stopped at the hotel and Hiroshi hurriedly helped his mother out of the car. "Thank you," Iku murmured with a small smile at her handsome son. Hiroshi looked much like his father did, though his face was narrower, a trait from her side of the family. Akina, on the other hand, looked nothing like either parents, though she did inherit their colorings. Akina looked like her grandfather, Iku's father, along with all of his spirit. Iku always thought that Kiyoshi would have done better with Akina. At least the two of them would be competing for the spotlight then.

Akina had always been the wild child. Though Hiroshi held much of the passion his sister had, he controlled himself better. If there were two more different from each other, it was Nami and Akina, two sisters who looked and acted not quite like those who were born from the same parents. Where Nami stilled, Akina burned, and where Nami thought, Akina acted. Once, Yuuichiro had smilingly described his two daughters as two opposing elements where one was like a pool of still waters, and the other a burning flame. Yuuichiro always did like Akina more, of the two daughters Iku gave him. It did not take much to realize such was true; Akina had a lot of the spirit that must have reminded Yuuichiro of the woman he once pursued.

Akina, who was like _that_ woman, Akina who adored her father as a child and had grown to hate him as an adult, Akina, who, come tomorrow, would at last see that place that made her parents who they were, and the woman who was at the heart of it all. Iku sighed as she closed the door to Nami's worried expression and Hiroshi's weary grin. Akina was waving goodnight, and Iku held onto that smile. Tomorrow, tomorrow that smile may disappear when Akina learned how weak her mother truly was. And then, Akina may come to hate her as much as Akina despised her father now, as much as Iku hated herself.

**- - - - -**

Iku had insisted they take the bus that day after walking around Tokyo a bit, much to the surprise of her children. "We may be able to afford a cab or a private ride," she smiled, "but I'd much rather take a bus."

Nami only shrugged, something she did whenever she was confused with a decision. Hiroshi looked perplexed, but did not protest. Akina was the one who challenged the decision. "Mother," the dark-haired woman whined, "you don't want to take public transportation in Tokyo. You know how many perverts are on that bus?" Akina's blue eyes were round with disbelief. "It's not safe for you, or Nami, or me!" Casting a sly glance at Hiroshi, she said, "Though I'm sure some members of the household won't mind being grabbed by the opposite sex."

"Akina Chan!" Nami's voice was sharp. Rarely did the eldest daughter ever use such a tone, but it stopped Akina dead in her tracks, along with her words. "Such crude remarks are unbecoming of a Kumada. Please don't repeat yourself in a similar manner again." Akina grudgingly complied with a grumbled apology. "Thank you, Akina Chan," Nami said in a soft, compelling tone.

"Hey," Hiroshi cheered after a silence fell over them. "Are we going to do more sight seeing after we visit the temple?"

"Yeah!" Akina perked up. "I heard the stores in Tokyo are definitely worth a tour of. And Christmas is coming, along with New Years. I want to get my boyfriend something he'll never be able to lay a hand on back home!"

Nami smiled, a little excited herself. "I heard Kiyoshi San tell me of a great noodle place downtown, when he last visited the city."

"Ah, Nami Chan," Akina taunted, wagging a finger at her older sister, "I can't believe you still call him Kiyoshi San. Didn't he tell you not to be so formal?"

Nami blushed a bit under her younger sister's scrutiny. "What I call Kiyoshi San is my own business, Akina Chan. It's not polite to butt in like that."

Hiroshi sighed at this, and quickly cut in before Akina could make a blunder with her words. "Where will this noodle place be?" he asked curiously. "I didn't know Kiyoshi even liked noodles."

It was known in the family that Nami had a great like of noodles and noodle shops, though it was one of the few quirks that did not match her somber personality and expensive tastes. "He doesn't really. But he looked into it for me," Nami told them with a blush staining her cheeks. If one didn't know her better, they'd think Nami was quite in love with her fiancé. But Nami quite blushed at any personal information she gave out about herself, even to her own family, be it about her love life or her likes and dislikes.

"Quite considerate of him," Akina teased.

Iku watched her children with a smile. They didn't get along quite as well as one may have hoped, but they certainly fitted quite well together as is. Iku looked down at the jar in her hand with a small smile. "We didn't do so badly, you and I," she said softly with a soft smile. Yuuichiro did not love her as he did that woman. But he loved his children and he liked her quite a lot; there were things they had shared in their lifetime together that she wouldn't have traded for anything in the world, except... for his love.

The rumored bus-ride filled with perverts did not turn out to be so bad. There were a few incidents with shifty eyed men, but everyone exited at the stop safely without any groping or inappropriate touching. "That was freakish," Akina shuddered with a sigh. "I don't know how Tokyo girls do it!"

Hiroshi raised an amused brow at his sister as he was wont to do. "By not being so paranoid," he suggested. The comment earned him a good, sound whack on the back of his head. "Hey, what was that for? I was merely answering your question, baka!"

"Who are you calling a baka?" Akina demanded.

Hiroshi opened his mouth to answer only to be interrupted by a caw from overhead. Startled, he looked up to see two black crows, seemingly cawing, or more like laughing, at them. "Eh?" He blinked.

"Eh?" Akina demanded before her gaze shifted and she gasped. "Hikawa-- Jinja?"

_"There was a shrine by the name of Hikawa Jinja, owned by a Matsuko Masakazu. He died in 2006 and left his shrine to his granddaughter-- a Hino Rei San."_ Gin's voice returned to Akina in that moment as she looked at the weather worn stone tablet.

"Yes," Iku smiled sadly at the worn sign. "Hikawa Jinja, where it had all began. Your father, she, and I came together at such a place. A place of the past, some call it, a place of memories."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**_Baka_** - Idiot 

**-** **_Kobe_****_ Luminarie_**_ -- December 23 festival of illumination (no less than 5 mill visitors are expected -- though I really think the numbers here are a bit exaggerated for tourism sake...)_

**-** _In big cities like Tokyo, it is notorious for "hentai" – perverted – men to grope women on crowded, public transits, at least, that's the rumors I've heard. So, Akina apparently heard such a rumor too, that's why she was so stressed out about using the public transit. The rumor need not be true; it's a rumor after all._

**-** _Because the Kumada family is rich, most likely, Akina never really used the public transit until now. Most likely her siblings probably never have been on a bus before, either. Iku is reliving her teenage years by taking the bus. The hotel is not that far from the shrine in this story (it is in walking distance)._

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ Dabs away tears of gratitude


	2. The Ghosts of Tokyo

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** The character **_Kumada_****_ Kiyoko_**'s name have been changed to **_Kumada_****_ Nami_** (on advice from my editor that people might get her and Kiyoshi – her boyfriend – confused.) If there were confusion, I apologize, but now it should be very clear who's who. The character names do have meaning to them and are genuinely Japanese (except Lesta Gin, but that's because she's part Russian as well).

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"I know you trust me. But would_

_you__ trust my words, if I dashed all_

_of__ your beliefs and spoke truth to_

_you__? Would you trust them really,_

_if__ I colored the black and white_

_pictures__ of your memories with my own?"_

**Chapter 2**

**_The Ghosts of Tokyo_**

The blue skies were clear, sharp with the cool breeze of winter. Bared branches of cherry trees shivered under the finicky wind. Nami, Akina, and even Hiroshi openly admired the scene before them, though Akina did a bit more gawking than everyone else. Whatever image Akina had of the shrine when Gin had told her of its existence, the pristine steps and secluded atmosphere was not what she had expected, especially not in what was once the most modernized metropolis of Japan. "Mm," Hiroshi murmured appreciatively, "I would love to see the beauty of this place in the spring. It must be a sight worthy of even the eyes of the Gods!" Akina was inclined to agree seeing how many of the trees lined the walk with stooped, aged branches.

"Tokyo's very well known for its sakura, too," Nami remarked, looking dreamily about. "It is such a shame we came at such a late time in the year."

Kumada Iku smiled a little to herself. "It is a very beautiful place in May," she agreed.

All three of her children looked to her in surprise. "You've really been here before, Mother?" Hiroshi inquired. Kumada Iku was not one who liked to travel; she was born in Kobe and as far as her children knew, she would most likely die in Kobe. Only since her announcement about going to Tokyo had they ever been informed of her being near the city, but mostly, they had thought she was talking about a school trip that didn't amount to much of anything.

Nodding, Iku glanced up at the one-hundred steps to the red-torii that marked the entrance of the shrine. "Yes," she echoed her earlier reply. "A long time ago, it seems, and yet, this place has yet to show its time in this world."

Iku shifted the urn in her hand but shot Hiroshi a polite smile when he tried to help. "No, no, son. This journey is one that your mother must make on her own."

Hiroshi reluctantly backed away and the four of them climbed slowly up the steep steps. Iku led the way as her children followed, and Nami cast a weary eye at the black birds perched upon the torii overhead. "Such ominous birds to watch over such a holy place," she whispered to Hiroshi who nodded in agreement.

"Phobos San, Deimos San, is your mistress in today?" Iku asked the crows who plucked at their feathers and shook their plumage. Her children glanced at her surprised.

"I didn't know Mother spoke to crows," Hiroshi whispered to Akina.

"Eh?" Akina muttered, still in shock at her mother's odd behavior. _Maybe the stress of losing Father has finally gotten to Mother_, all three of Iku's children thought in unison.

"Huh?" A cheerful and surprised voice suddenly rang over the grounds, startling the crows to agitated cawing as they flew high overhead. "We have visitors!" A pretty blonde in the robes of a miko came rushing up to them. "Good evening everyone! Welcome to Hikawa Jinja, my name is Aino Minako and I'm the caretaker of this place!"

Kumada Iku bowed low to the blonde before rising. "My name is Kumada Iku, Aino Minako San. I have brought my children to visit your shrine this day. Is the head miko, Hino Rei San, of this shrine in today?" Iku asked worriedly. "I have an important request I hope she will grant to me."

Aino Minako's bright smile faded a little at the mention of the head miko, her expression more closed off and sadder than before. "No, the head miko has been gone for quite some time. I'm sorry." But the wayward silence was broken quickly as the blonde gained back her original cheer. "But, if there's anything I can do for you or your family, I'm more than willing to help. I also have charms to sell if you or any of the others will like to buy Hikawa Jinja's special charms! How about some tea? It's getting awfully cold lately and your accent seems not of any Tokyo district that I know of. Are you far from home and just visiting? Oh, please come in from the cold! Come on, come on!"

Hiroshi put a hand over his forehead and Akina put hers to her ears. Nami braved the whole speech with a solemn expression while Iku smiled at the youthful energy of their hostess, an energy Iku had long lost herself. "We would be honored," Iku answered.

Nodding cheerfully, the blonde quickly hurried ahead of them, not at all noticing the weary expressions on her guests' faces. "Please excuse the mess," Aino Minako called over her shoulder as she scrambled over the steps. "I wasn't expecting visitors. But it is such terrible weather, all cold and dreary. I can't just leave guests at the doorstep. If Rei Chan ever found out she'd have my head..." their hostess' voice faded as she went deeper into the house. At the last minute, the blonde stuck her head out again, with an expectant expression on her face. "Don't be shy and don't hesitate. The more you stay out, the colder you'll get and the more likely you'll all catch colds! Tokyo weather's horrible during winter! Though it's not as bad as England, if you know what I mean. You know what they say, don't you? The colder the weather is, the more likely to freeze your feet off!" Then Aino Minako was back inside again, her voice echoing off the walls even though her words stopped making sense.

Hesitatingly, the four dazedly followed their hostess into the receiving room of the shrine's living quarters. Though, none of them were entirely sure what the blonde meant during her earlier chatter. "Amazing!" Akina leaned over the railings and touched the wooden poles. "I feel like I've stepped back in time here!" All the others were inclined to agree, though Iku wore the nostalgic expression of someone reliving the past.

"Welcome to Hikawa Jinja, everyone," Aino Minako greeted them again once they had settled in the reception room. The blonde came out from a deeper part of the house with a tray of piping hot tea. "I'm sorry, but I really wasn't expecting guests today. The place has been awfully quiet for quite some time." Minako smiled at them all. "Are you here on official business? Anything I can help you with?" she inquired. "Charms?" the blonde suggested hopefully again.

"No," Nami answered for her mother, who was preoccupied with looking at the room. "We apologize for our intrusion," she continued, looking down at her cup worriedly, "but our business here is one of great importance to us, and it is not something we can ask, easily."

Minako smiled, her blue eyes opened and unclouded with any worry. "Ah, there's no need to feel intrusive. Rei Chan left me to take care of the shrine and all of the functions needed to keep it running in her absence. If I don't take care of the people who come here, she'd surely hear of it and--" Minako waved a worried hand over her face "--she can be very scary when she doesn't get what she wants!"

Nami still hesitated, so Akina took it upon herself to speak for her family. "My… father died in early summer, but we all had been very busy at the time to fulfill his last request. Hence, when we all had vacation and time off, we decided to travel here together and see that his last wish was fulfilled."

Minako looked surprised at this. "Your father? Who is he, Kumada San?"

"Kumada Yuuichiro," Hiroshi helpfully answered. Aino Minako blinked her large blue eyes at them in confusion before recognition came over her face and she clasped her slender fingers over her mouth in surprise. However, the gasp escaped her lips quite loudly nonetheless.

"Kumada… Yuuichiro Kun?" Aino Minako whispered in shock.

Akina immediately came to the defensive. "Did you know him?" Akina demanded with some vehemence.

Aino Minako set down her trembling hands, too shocked to be offended by Akina's tone. "Know him? A little," she admitted, "but Rei Chan was the one who knew him best of all of us." The blonde had a far away look in her eyes as she glanced out the opened shoji door. "After all, he lived here with her and her grandfather for quite some time."

"Rei?" Akina blinked in surprise. "Hino Rei San?" But Minako did not answer immediately. "After all these years, there's no way she could have still known my father well, unless she was his..." At this, Akina paled with anger and Minako paled with another emotion.

"Oh, no, not like that!" Minako waved her hands frantically, as if realizing an error in what she spoke about earlier. A bright smile came over the blonde's face, though it wasn't hard to notice the perplexity that remained in her expressive, blue eyes. "The Rei Chan of that time hated men, and relationships, too!"

Akina was surprised by this answer. "Eh?" The dark-haired woman sputtered. Hiroshi pinched Akina's leg beneath the table and gave her a warning look. "Doesn't-- like-- men?" Akina blinked again, and freaked a little with the implication.

Aino Minako meanwhile sighed in exasperation. "Pervert, don't say strange things like that. I didn't mean it _that_ way, either!"

"Then what do you mean?" Hiroshi asked over his sister's protests.

Aino Minako looked distant again. "Rei Chan doesn't really trust anyone, especially not men." Then a nervous laughter came over their blonde hostess as she rubbed her head. "You know her grand-- I mean her mother. Daughter, mother, same name-- You know how it is, with them being all proud of their name and all that."

"Why is that?" Akina asked, more curious now than ever and not understanding what their hostess was talking about at all. Aino Minako gave a questioning look at Akina, who sighed and elaborated a bit more. "Why would Hino Rei San not trust men?"

"That's for her to tell," Minako smiled mysteriously. "It's her story after all. I wouldn't be a very good friend if I told strangers her and her family's secrets now, would I? Especially not on the first meeting with people I don't know very well, even if you might be people she might be familiar with."

It was then a draft wafted into the room. Akina sneezed harshly. "Oh, I hope I didn't catch a cold," Akina said as she sniffled a bit, feeling as if she had wasted time on this trip.

Aino Minako wore a strange expression on her face. "Oh, the ghost is out again."

"G-ghost?" Nami perked up. Nami was a superstitious woman, and the one thing Nami could not stand was the mention of ghosts.

Aino Minako's eyes gained a certain amount of glee at the mention of ghosts, though. "Yeah," the blonde agreed, missing the horrified look that came over Nami's pallid face. "It's Matsuko Masakazu San's ghost! He was always so worried about his granddaughter. It's said that when he died, his ghost began roaming these halls, checking the rooms whenever it gets around dinner time. Calling her, you know?"

The chill of the room froze Akina in her seat. "Rei Chan!" Minako mimicked scarily. Nami squealed like a young girl, jumping from her kneeling position. Minako tried to hide her rude laughter from behind her hand, but to no avail. "Grandfather Masakazu was a perverted old man when he was alive. He hasn't changed much as a ghost." Aino Minako waved her hand in attempt to settle her surprised guests, "He is harmless, as the most he does is lift girls' skirts when they visit the shrine with a little wind."

Akina blinked in disbelief at her hostess. "Was that supposed to be reassuring?" Hiroshi whispered to Akina.

"I think that was Aino Minako San's _don't-worry_ speech," Akina sighed in exasperation. "But you can't be serious, Aino Minako San," Akina said more loudly to gain the attention of their hostess. "There's no such thing as ghosts!"

Aino Minako chuckled slyly behind her hand a bit. "There are," she insisted. "Why else would I set an extra place for him?" Only then did they notice the extra tea set on the table next to their blonde hostess.

"If there really is a ghost," Hiroshi challenged, leaning over the table edge, "why did it linger? I really don't buy the poor-lonely-granddaughter story, nor the hentai-old-man story."

Minako blinked at him. "No one asked before you," she said in surprise.

"No answer to this prank, then?" Hiroshi asked.

Aino Minako smiled a bit sadly at him. "No." Sky blue eyes closed in thought as the blonde sipped her tea. "If only it were a prank, Kumada Hiroshi San."

"Are you saying that there is a ghost?" Nami asked with a slight quiver in her usually composed voice.

Minako looked down at her tea. "There are many reasons why Rei Chan left this shrine; I wouldn't blame her if this was one of them. Grandfather Masakazu and Rei Chan were very close before his death. But, his ghost is not the same person as the man," Minako explained.

"What is this story?" Iku asked after having stayed silent a long time.

The blonde hostess blinked at her. "You truly wish to know?" At Iku's nod, Minako sighed. "I can't tell you the whole story, only what I know. There are secrets not my own to tell."

_"That's my secret, but it's not one that I share alone. So, I can't tell."_ Akina remembered Mars Reiko saying the very same to her before. It compelled Akina to be curious over the few similarities she had already discovered these two women she had met in the last months seemed to share. Somehow, these women seemed so very close to each other, even if they might not know the other's existence. Still, Akina wondered what Mars Reiko's relationship was with one like Aino Minako, if they had one that is. After all, the blonde woman was now running the shrine that once belonged to someone that looked just like Mars Reiko, and they shared such similar wording and speech. Akina never had a close girlfriend except for Gin, and there were never really secrets they shared nor did they ever spend so much time together that they would start to sound like each other. Gin was not the type to have too many secrets to begin with, and she was not one who felt comfortable sharing hers with anyone. Akina wondered what had made it so that someone who seemed as closed off as Hino Rei did in her pictures -- and Mars Reiko's familiar chilly expressions -- would share a secret with someone like Aino Minako. The two women seemed to be so different that on the compatibility scale, Akina just couldn't seem to see a firm friendship to be in their favor. Aino Minako and Hino Rei were as different as day was to night; at least, it seemed so to Akina.

"If you won't mind, I would love to hear it," Iku encouraged, breaking through Akina's thoughs.

Aino Minako poured herself a bit more tea, slowly taking a sip. "My story began on a day like today," their hostess smiled to herself. "A long time ago, it seems." Blonde lashes fluttered and blue eyes suddenly looked as if it were seeing a different time. "I was a child then," Aino Minako explained. "We were all children then, even Rei Chan, we heard of a... story. A story about a heroine with a crystal heart..."

**- - - - -**

It was a time of many battles. Monsters roamed the streets and terrorized the citizens living in what is now the new Tokyo. Back then, a group of mysterious heroines protected these streets at night, fighting and shielding the people from these monsters. And then, one day, something came from the darkness that was stronger than anything the heroines ever fought. There were many skirmishes, but finally, a showdown brought a great light to wash over Tokyo and from that day on, things were never the same.

People lived and died. There were crime and disease. But the monsters were suddenly gone, and thus, so were the mysterious soldiers that once protected the city from them. Yet the peace seemed deceiving, and something was off from before. It was said that a woman with a crystal heart blossomed into being the night of the unknown light, and then disappeared that same night after the light had washed over the lands. What happened after was a mystery but the heroines never showed up again, nor did the monsters.

But then, in the city, when people died, their spirits did not and would not leave the earth. Instead, all over Tokyo, ghosts began to appear. None of the ghosts were malevolent. It seemed, though, that a different kind of immortality was granted to the men and women or Tokyo and those that died there. Perhaps it was not an eternity that anyone could have envisioned for themselves, but it was one of the many things that began to surface in that precarious peace set in the city of Tokyo. It was one of the many things to support the theory that something was "off" in the once magnificent metropolis.

So, one day, when Matsuko Masakazu got sick, his granddaughter became especially worried. "Grandfather's been getting sick a lot lately," Hino Rei sighed as she explained the situation to her friends. "I don't know what we're going to do about it. There's not much money left over after the bills are paid for the shrine, and he refuses to go see a doctor, that stubborn man."

Ami tapped her keys a bit before looking out to the window again, while Minako worriedly leaned over the table. "Are you going to be okay taking care of your grandfather by yourself, Rei Chan?" the blonde demanded.

Rei smiled at Minako's show of concern, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "I'll need help, but I think with Yuuichiro here, we can handle it together."

Minako grinned, "Yuuichiro Kun and you have been getting on better together, Rei Chan?" Minako giggled behind her hand a bit. At least someone was trying to move on from what happened, Minako thought. Still, everyone was still recovering and trying to move on in their own way. Makoto has yet to be able to get out of the hospital bed since the incident though, and the brunette's spirits had been awfully down lately. That worried Minako, but all she could do these days was try her best to be there for everyone.

"Are you coming with us to visit Mako Chan tomorrow, Ami Chan?" Minako asked.

The blue-haired genius winced slightly at the mention. "Y-yes," Ami answered timidly. Ever since the accident, Mizuno Ami had started to become more and more shy and detached, reverting back to the girl she once was. The way their progress as friends was deteriorating was frustrating and frightening to Minako.

Minako wanted to say, _"Usagi Chan wouldn't want to see us this way. We have to stick together. We have to, if we are to truly win this."_ The battles they had fought, it wasn't just that anymore. If they weren't able to stick together during Usagi's absence, Minako knew that they wouldn't last very long against any enemy if an attack occurred. Battles were not the only things they were fighting against now; ideals were not the only things they were fighting for either, not anymore. Things had all of a sudden gotten more and more complicated.

"I've got selected for the transfer to Germany again," Ami admitted, looking down at her hands. "I've been seriously considering rejecting the offer. But since that day--" Ami sighed deeply "--there are so many bad memories now. Perhaps it would be better if I go."

"Do you still blame yourself for all of this, Ami Chan?" Rei asked worriedly. "It's not really anything we did and there was nothing more that we could have done. Even I have to admit that though it would be easier to say that had we been faster, stronger, and better, Usagi might not have had to have done the things that she did—" Rei turned away, feeling moisture in her eyes "--it couldn't be helped. This is not what she or Mamoru Kun would have wanted from us."

"It hurts!" Ami grasped the front of her shirt and pounded on the table with her free hand. "We're soldiers and we must sacrifice ourselves for everyone, but why did it have to be the two of them? Why did it have to be Artemis and Luna? Our job was to protect her, our friends, this city… that was our vow, it was the reason why I fought and never gave up, even when I wanted to. But we've failed in the end. I've failed!" Ami began to cry, something she had began to do a bit more frequently than was probably considered healthy. Yet, it was the first time since the incident that Ami had been so honest and open with them. "We could keep smiling, but I feel it in my heart—that pain that wouldn't go away. I can't do it, Rei Chan, Mina Chan! I can't stand to be here with so many painful memories, when everyday, all I can think about is how we failed Usagi Chan, how I can't help Mako Chan—how I'm glad that I didn't get punished like Mako Chan did." The last part of Ami's words came in a whisper, as if she was afraid to say it out loud as the blue-haired woman clutched to her hair so tightly that her friends were worried she was going to pull out the strands by the roots.

"It wasn't punishment," Rei answered solemnly, trying to settle everyone's rattled nerves after such a speech. "It was an accident. Like everything else."

"How would you know?" Ami demanded. "You're blind. Isn't that _your_ punishment?"

Rei winced as she glanced down at her hands, at the cooling tea next to them. "It can't be helped," Rei finally answered, clutching her fingers tightly in denial.

Minako shook her head, her attitude surprisingly more serious than normal and far more calm. But lately, Minako had been hit by the traumatizing changes pretty harshly, and keeping that happy mask was becoming more difficult. "I refuse to let Artemis' and Luna's sacrifice be wasted on self-pity," she declared, fisting her hands in determination, "I refuse to let Usagi's sacrifice and everyone who helped us thus far, those who have suffered for us, especially Mako Chan who is like the way she is now..." Minako looked fiercely into Ami's startled eyes. "I'm your friend, still, Ami Chan. If you must go to Germany, if that is your decision, then I can't stop you. But as your leader, I am strongly against such a decision. Ami Chan, even if you go, you can't run away from what has happened. It would be better if we pick up the pieces and try to move on from it, even if the pieces cut us, even if it is more painful than anything else. That is what we must do to go on living. We have all learned this in our battles together, especially Usagi Chan. If she were to see us now, she would tell us to keep smiling and continue on with the same hope and determination as before. Usagi Chan… she wouldn't want to see us give up so easily."

Ami's lips trembled, "How can you say it so easily?" The blue-haired girl covered her eyes. "There's no more Sailor Senshi, you know that. It ended that night. What pieces can we pick up when they are too small to grasp? We can't return to the past, it's over. Even the future-- No, even that is so unforgivable and uncertain a thing. Lingering here, I will only shrink back to before, I have no choice. To grow, I must move forward to where memories don't hurt as much and can't influence my actions as greatly as this place. I want to go to a place where I won't worry everyday about seeing _her_ in the streets or Mamoru San. I don't know which is worse, seeing him or her, and I don't want this feeling as if I was dying all over again each time I walk down the street or pass the places we used to hang out. I don't want to live here remembering that look on Artemis' face or the helplessness I feel when I see Luna. I have so much fear in this city, too many things to feel guilty over and be afraid of. Everything is different now."

"Ami Chan!" Rei gasped out in surprise. Minako just watched her long time friend and admired companion crumble under the tragedies laid before them.

"I-I can't continue smiling. I can feel a part of me has died." Ami closed her eyes. "I can't continue on as if nothing has happened. I can't continue to smile knowing the sufferings of others and remain unable to do a thing about it. I can't linger here much longer. I must grow stronger as fast as I possibly can, and if I go to Germany, maybe I can learn to be that way. Maybe, I'll be able to do things smarter should such things happen again. If I don't continue to grow, if this happens again, how will I be able to help anyone? I can't handle failing again. Right now, I can't even handle my own feelings!"

"If you're not here, how would any of your newly acquired skills help us or anyone else for that matter?" Rei demanded angrily.

"It can't be helped," Ami said. "I can't continue to be this weak. I can only hope and trust that there'll be enough of a warning for me to come back and help out."

Rei opened her mouth to retort, but Minako held up her hand to Rei as her usually cheerful blue eyes now settled intensely upon their friend. "If that is what you wish, Ami Chan, we will try our best to support you," Minako replied gently.

Ami swallowed harshly at those words. "Please take care of Mako Chan, tell her—" Ami grasped for words, "—tell her I'm going to have to go find a cure for her, that's why I'm leaving. Please don't discourage her from getting better because of me. Everything I do, I'll do it to the best of my abilities. Tell her not to give up and that I'm thinking of her and everyone, always."

Minako knew Rei would want to call what Ami was doing, "giving up", but right now was not a time for the team to fracture more. Feelings of betrayal must be set aside so that understanding and forgiveness could blossom. The wounds they carried were still too deep and each must heal in her own way. "If that is your decision, Ami Chan, I will try to the best of my abilities to support you in yours, even if we're an ocean apart."

"Mina Chan," Ami whispered with guilt and gratitude. For the first time in a long time, there was a smile on Ami's face, one filled with relief and sadness, but it also carried with it hope. "Thank you." Ami stood and bowed to Minako and then Rei, while the dark-haired miko studied Minako with scrutiny. There was still a bit of a scowl over Rei's face, but the miko chose not to argue and curtly nodded to Ami goodbye when the other hesitantly inched towards the doors.

After the blue-haired woman left, Minako banged her fist against the table harshly. "Damn it," the blonde swore. "I can't believe Ami Chan—"

Rei sighed and drank her tea, trying very hard to relax her tense jaw. "You were right, Mina Chan," the miko interrupted with a rueful smile. "We must all heal in our own way. I couldn't help but feel a bit betrayed, though. To say I saw this coming," Rei laughed a bit bitterly. "I am blind now, Ami Chan's right. From here on out, we have nothing to guide us anymore, only ourselves."

Minako tiredly watched the cherry blossoms fall from the open shoji. The scene was nostalgic and sad. "How many mistakes and hurts will we add to the ones we already have?" Minako questioned softly.

Rei smiled at her friend. "We must be strong, Mina Chan," the miko said, grasping her friend's hand in her own. "For Mako Chan, for Ami Chan, for the Outers and the City, but mostly for each other." Rei's dark eyes shimmered with tears, "For Usagi and Mamoru San, Luna and Artemis -- for them especially."

Minako nodded slowly. "Yes, for everyone."

A sigh could be heard as both girls tensed. "Yuuichiro?" Rei's face was menacing. "Were you peeping in on us, you pervert?" Without much prompting, scrambling sounds could be heard. But Rei was on the tail of Yuuichiro before he could get much of a head start, yelling after the young man with great menace and many threats.

Minako smiled to herself, glad to see her friend a bit livelier than she had been since the beginning of the incident. Somewhere, the blonde heard coughing. Surprised, but worried, Minako stuck her head out into the hallway to find Rei's grandfather leaning heavily against the shoji wall where he had stumbled over for support after exiting his own room a few doors down the hall. "Oh!" She rushed to the old man's side. "You okay, Grandfather?" Minako asked worriedly. "Rei Chan wouldn't want you out of bed, you should know, Grandfather," she scolded the old man who was smiling at her from beneath his mustache.

"But I'm glad," the old man said as he smiled up at Minako, "to see such a pretty girl finding me and worrying about me. Anyway, I wanted to see the cherry blossoms bloom before they all fall."

Minako sighed. "Let's go back inside," she said to him.

But Rei's grandfather shook his head, his smile never slipping. "It's a special time, this time of the year. There are memories in this place, you know? Memories are such funny things, cherished and still so painful to recall." Rei's grandfather sighed a bit heavily and Minako found that she could not recall a time where she had seen him this serious before. It made Minako quite edgy, and uncertain as to how to deal with the situation. "I can't go back to that room without watching and smelling the fresh air a bit more." There was a very determined look the old man was sending Minako as he explained his reasoning.

Sighing, Minako nodded and suggested she go get him a blanket. The old man readily agreed, even suggestively winking at her and saying how they should share it. If Minako wasn't so used to Rei's flirtatious grandfather, she might have been seriously apprehensive about going near the old man, but that was how Rei's grandfather was always like. It was better to take what he said with humor than seriousness. The sky was darkening significantly when Rei returned.

"Grandfather, what are you doing out?" Rei asked angrily when she spotted Minako and him sitting and watching the blossoms fall from the tree.

"Ah, my ever stubborn granddaughter." There was a perplexed look on Rei's grandfather's face, and in his voice as well. But it was soon gone with a good whine. "I've been stuck indoors all day, Rei Chan! Now, that can be no healthier than—"

"You can tell me all about it while you're on your way to bed," Rei answered smoothly but there was a twitch under one of her eyes that indicated the great agitation she was trying very hard to disguise.

"But Rei Chan…" Grandfather clasped his hands together in a begging motion. "Allow me this final wish as an old, dying man—"

Rei's face turned immediately pale though her gaze was very serious and very angry. "Grandfather! Don't you dare to even joke about such things!" Rei gripped his shoulders and nearly shook him silly.

"My granddaughter sure can be scary looking." Her grandfather shuddered under Rei's glare, though part of his wobbling form was due to Rei's earlier shakings. The comment immediately changed Rei's worries once more to her earlier, frustrated emotions. But her grandfather's face suddenly became very serious though. "Did I ever tell you how much your grandmother loved cherry blossoms, the very blooms she was named after?"

"Eh?" Rei paused at this, surprised. The subject came out of nowhere and surprised her so much that Rei nearly fell over with shock, but she ended up gaping at her grandfather in total speechlessness instead.

"We picked this shrine for the trees, you know? Your grandmother really loved the trees here. She loved the torii, too, and this old house. She even loved the one-hundred steps, even though she hated the climb." He chuckled a bit to himself. "Your mother used to complain that the steps deterred all her friends from coming over," he recalled, nodding to Rei who gingerly sat down next to him, a bit shell shocked. Minako watched with increasing curiosity and surprise as well. "Your grandmother and your mother used to fight all the time, all the way up to the time when your mother was a teenager. Your grandmother used to be the only person that could light a fire in Yumiko Chan's life." Rei blinked at her mother's given name, for she did not hear her grandfather talk about her mother much. They were beautiful and cherished memories, but they were also painful. They were the reminders of what was long lost and gone. "Yumiko Chan had such a spark too. No one really saw it much though. Perhaps, your father did, but he could never bring it out as effectively as my Sakura Chan. And what a fiery woman Sakura was, though her health could never quite match her spirit."

"Grandfather," Rei said, looking at him worriedly, "why are you telling me this?"

"It's time for you to know." Grandfather smiled to her sadly. "As a ghost, I will live in painful and beautiful memories. I won't remember you very well, I don't think. If such circumstances were to occur how would I be able to tell you the beautiful things your mother and grandmother had accomplished in their lives? How would you know the people they were and became before their time on earth was up?" The hairs of Grandfather's mustache stirred from his soft breaths.

Rei looked truly afraid for a moment. "Please don't talk about such things," she begged him.

"You know," Minako gasped as well in surprise.

Rei's grandfather chuckled. "I'm old, not blind, child. And even if I was blind, I still have ears. People talk about these things, especially to priests, and especially if they're very old priests." Matsuko Masakazu viewed the falling blossoms in the night with a serious expression. Huddled as he was beneath his heavy blankets like a small child, he still carried a very grave air around him. "We are priests, Rei Chan. We deal with death everyday. One day, very soon, it will be my time to go." He ignored Rei's protests with a shake of his head and a hand rose to gently quiet her fears. "When it is time, it is time. You know that best of all, Rei Chan. I have raised you to be strong enough to handle the truth. It is up to you whether or not you will accept it willingly when it comes to you."

Rei winced at this slightly, but her grandfather gently touched her hand with his. "You're a lot like my Sakura, only you've got your Father's strength in body. Your father and I didn't get along from the start, but he was not so bad a man. He was a stubborn and determined man when it came to the things important to him, perhaps that is why he got so far with his goals, and won even Yumiko Chan's fickle heart. Perhaps he was stronger than most even, but he wasn't strong enough to handle all the baggage that Yumiko Chan carried wherever she went."

"Baggage?" Minako inquired.

Rei's grandfather smiled a bit at this. "Yes. Even my daughter had baggage to carry with her, though mostly in secret when she could help it. Yumiko Chan was not an easy child. There were times she would be gentle and kind, and there were times she would be brash and cruel. Your mother, she sometimes woke up in the morning and was a completely different person from the one who had gone to bed. She was a difficult child, a fragile one, even if she didn't appear so to the outside world. Sometimes, even Sakura could not stand to be too close to the burning path that our Yumiko Chan blazed through life."

"Are you implying my mother was mentally ill?" Rei asked, shocked.

Her grandfather shook his head. "We loved your mother dearly. She was our only child. But she was not an easy person, Rei Chan. Your mother wasn't always like that, you know? It's the price I had to pay for being young and inexperienced once. Something had come to your mother and possessed her in her heart when she was very young. She fought it well, but it wore down her spirit, and then it wore down her body. There was nothing either Sakura or I could have done. The spirit that gripped onto your mother was far too strong. The pain and anguish she went through in her life was passed on in pieces to others, cutting those closest to her worst of all, and wounding those she came into contact with. Your father was hurt badly by our Yumiko Chan. Perhaps, he feared the same from his daughter."

Rei was outraged at this. "Feared me? He abandoned me! He abandoned Mother! How can you say those things about such a cowardly and irresponsible man, Grandfather?" Rei was increasingly incensed as she continued.

"That makes him a terrible father, doesn't it?" Rei's grandfather bowed his head with a sad, low chuckle. "We tried to warn him about our Yumiko Chan, and she resisted him as well as she could. But your father was always so stubborn. She really wore him down, and nearly broke him in two in the eight years they were married. Now, he's just half of a man, clinging to his career because there's nothing left for him on the inside. He must have been relieved a bit when our Yumiko Chan died, relieved and hurt and guilty. To this day, I pity that man who came to my steps with you by his side. I would not have let him keep you, Rei Chan, even if he had been willing. He did you a kindness, for he would have been far more terrible a father if he had stayed."

Rei clamped her lips together in a frowning scowl, but said nothing. Ever since she was a child, Rei had adored her mother and associated her mother's death with her father's absence and his abandonment of her. A few words could not undo over a decade of beliefs.

_No!_ She refused to believe it! Father was the villain in her memories, how can it be so different from the story her grandfather was telling her? Why was Grandfather telling her this now, anyway? What would it prove when her own father had abandoned her when once she had loved him so much? How can she forgive such a man that had given up on both his wife and daughter?

"When our Yumiko Chan had you, Rei Chan, it was as if the spirit that had gripped her since she was a child suddenly disappeared. There had been an equally sudden calm in your parent's marriage then, but your father was far too weary by then. He had reached quite a breaking point by the time you were born. When your mother changed so drastically, he was quite unsure what to do with himself." Grandfather smiled sadly as a blossom was caught by the wind and blown from the branch. "He feared you, feared you because he probably came to love you as all fathers love their daughters. But he was afraid you had taken that thing that had gripped your mother in all the years they had married. He was afraid of how much you would hurt him once you were able to do so."

Rei was at a loss, not quite sure what to say. Minako cut in worriedly, not sure if she belonged in such a private conversation, "Still, Rei Chan wouldn't hurt a soul!"

Grandfather smiled. "Your father lived with a woman he loved, feared, and hated with equal intensity for eight years. I don't think he was quite in a logical frame of mind when Rei Chan was born."

Minako thought on this. "So, does that make him a victim?" she asked quietly.

Rei rose abruptly. "No! These are all lies!" She shook her head fiercely before glancing down at her grandfather. "You must go to bed, this is unhealthy," she commanded, but without ensuring that he did, Rei spun on her heels and nearly ran down the hall.

"Rei Chan!" he called after Rei worriedly, but he hadn't the strength to rise and chase after her. "The truth is not a compassionless thing, or perhaps it is too terribly compassionate a thing to understand passed the results. Truth seems so ignorant of the pain it causes in opening the eyes of those too used to living in the darkness, eyes that are unused to its blinding light." Matsuko Masakazu sighed as he looked to the ground before him helplessly. "But it is about time she learned of such things." There was a determined look in Masakazu's eyes, even if it was tempered by sorrow. Minako helped him to his room in reverent silence soon after, and bid him goodnight with worry for her friend written on the blonde woman's face.

"I'm glad," Masakazu told Minako before she left, "that my granddaughter had found such great friends to see her through the hard times in her life. I'm glad." That night, Matsuko Masakazu died in his sleep, leaving behind a grief stricken Hino Rei in his place as the caretaker of the shrine. And ever since that time, his ghost had haunted the shrine. Searching, always searching for something. But to this day, no one knows what it is that he is looking for.

**- - - - -**

"Are you saying there are ghosts everywhere in Tokyo?" Nami asked with a suppressed shudder.

Minako nodded eagerly. "Saw quite a few myself. But our Grandfather ghost sure remained a pervert, even if he's now a dead one." Minako sighed with resigned exasperation.

Akina blinked at their host in disbelief. "You have to be joking," Akina grumbled.

Minako blinked at them. "You guys must be outsiders. All of Tokyo knows this is a ghost town. They're everywhere, you know? They roam the city as if they're not dead yet, or do not know they're dead. A lot of the population drop is because the descendants of these ghosts find it either too creepy or too painful to stay."

"Is that why Hino San left?" Nami asked.

Minako looked down at her hands. "It was one of her many reasons for leaving," the blonde answered without looking up and then took a sip of her cold tea.

Iku looked very worried. "We're sorry to have troubled you. If you do not want to keep the remains of my husband here, I'll understand."

Minako blinked at them before breaking into a cheerful grin. "No, no! I'm the one who's sorry! I'm sure this is something Rei Chan would have wanted to attend to personally. If you don't mind, I would love for you guys to come back tomorrow evening, and we'll do some arrangements then. Tonight is not so good, I'm afraid. I'm not at all prepared for such a request at this time and it's already getting dark out."

Iku nodded with a relieved smile. "Thank you very much, Aino San," Iku bowed to her host. It was a shallow bow since Iku was sitting down. "I truly appreciate all that you done for us."

Minako waved away the compliment. "Don't worry about it. As I said before, Rei Chan would kill me if I didn't take care of my duties." And as the Kumada family was readying to leave, Minako suggested that they leave Yuuichiro's ashes at the shrine until the next day so they wouldn't have to continue to carry him back and forth again for the second time. Iku hesitantly considered it, before reluctantly agreeing to let him go when her children pointed out to her the inconvenience of the trip back, and also the fact that too much carrying may cause more chances of dropping the urn.

After everyone put on their shoes to leave, Nami, Akina, and Hiroshi all bowed to Minako as well, just as their mother had done earlier. "It was a lovely visit, Aino San," Nami said, smiling. "I am very glad to have met you. You have treated us with such kindness, we cannot thank you enough."

"Yeah, cool place," Akina nodded as she stretched a bit. "Could do without the stairs and the supposed ghost, but can't do anything about either of that I guess."

"That was an amazing story. I'm still not sure if I could believe it but-- We will be seeing you tomorrow than, Aino San." Hiroshi blushed as Minako waved goodbye to them with her cheerful and pretty smile.

"Nice meeting you too!" Minako called out as she watched them descend the one-hundred steps. When they rounded the corner, Minako's expression became one of exhaustion. "Ah, just when things were getting quiet it becomes all complicated again," Minako said to the crows as they fluttered by her feet. They cawed as if in agreement, much to Minako's annoyance. "Baka, you could have disagreed." She stuck her tongue out at them before grinning a bit sheepishly when a few passer-bys looked up at her strangely. "Rei Chan, where are you?" Minako asked into the coming dusk, but there were no answers except for the caw of the crows as they leapt into the sky once more.

**- - - - -**

"That was unnecessarily creepy," Akina mumbled as she rubbed her arm. "I've never heard of Tokyo being a ghost town."

Hiroshi was thoughtful. "Aino San didn't seem like she was lying to us though. And the Tokyo population has been dropping surprisingly quickly these past few decades. Once it was such a populated city, too! I had always wondered a bit to why this was so in school when the textbooks didn't seem to be giving valid explanations for the phenomenon. Still, I can understand it better now. After all, who'd want to read that everyone leaving a place because of ghosts?"

"Baka," Akina shot a sideways glance at her brother, "you're just taking her word because you have the hots for her. No matter how crazy an idea she might be selling you, you'd still be eating it out of her hand. I mean did you hear a word she said? Woman with a crystal heart and heroines fighting monsters! Really, who'd believe such things?" Akina paused at this and shot Hiroshi a pointed look. "Never mind," she sighed, airily waving off the last of her questions.

"What?" Hiroshi looked duly insulted. "Unlike you, I'm not so easily moved by other people's good looks."

"So you think she's good-looking then?" Akina challenged.

"You'd have to be blind not to notice," Hiroshi retorted, "though it's not so hard to believe when it comes to you, Akina Chan."

"What?" Akina looked incensed. "I'm your _older_ sister remember? Show some respect!"

"Only when you act like one who can receive respect," Hiroshi calmly replied with a derisive air.

Nami rubbed her temples as her siblings continued to squabble like children. "Would the two of you at least try to act more your age?" Nami finally cut in harshly, shooting both of them an accusing glare. "You're disgracing yourselves in public. At least have the decency to wait till we get back to the hotel to fight over such trivial matters."

"Aino San was kind enough to have us over for tea, Akina Chan," Iku added when her children settled to grumbling under their breaths. "We should honor her for what she has agreed so willingly to do for us, even though we are strangers to her." Their mother paused in her steps and glanced back at her youngest daughter with a look of disapproval. "It is not good to slander others, Akina Chan, especially not behind their backs. If they are kind to you, you should be equally kind in return. Otherwise, it will lead to a cruel and vengeful personality. Such a person would not appreciate anything anyone does for them." Iku turned and continued to walk, leaving a shamed Akina behind with her siblings.

Hiroshi glanced at his sister with a mixed expression on his face. "What are you looking at?" Akina bared her teeth at him defensively.

"Nothing," he sighed and jogged to catch up with Nami and Iku.

"Vengeful and... cruel, huh?" Akina glanced up at the sky worriedly. "Am I really like that?"

A scream sounded off in the distance, alarming Akina greatly. _ That sounded like Nami_, Akina realized as she ran up ahead. There Nami was leaned against the wall of the side walk with terror on her face, hand over her chest while Hiroshi was backed away against a telephone pole and Iku looked positively startled. Nami's mouth was a gap as all three stared at a woman dressed strangely in a white sleeping robe. "Eh?" Akina blinked.

"Watch out, Akina Chan!" Hiroshi shouted as the woman approached her. "That's a ghost!"

"G-ghost?" Akina blinked at him and then at the woman who continued to walk towards her. The stranger did appear to be exceptionally pale, but there was where the "ghost" part of her ended. Head bowed, and trudging forward, the woman seemed oblivious to the world.

Akina backed away, jumping slightly as she felt the hairs on her neck and arms rise as the woman passed by. The side walk was suddenly very narrow and instead of bumping into Akina, the woman's arm went through Akina's own. A terribly cold feeling passed through Akina's body. "Gah!" Akina screamed and flattened herself against the wall. "G-g-ghost!" she stuttered in disbelief.

"Are you okay?" Hiroshi rushed to her side, looking quite shaken himself.

"Are Nami and Mother okay?" Akina asked worriedly when her senses stopped reeling. They glanced back to see Iku helping her daughter stand.

"I didn't think Aino San was serious when she said this was a ghost town." A shadow fell over the streets as the street lights flickered on. The sudden change was so startling Akina let out another squeak of protest. "This place is way creepier than I had thought!"

"This is a strange place," Hiroshi agreed. "We should get out of here as soon as possible!" Both siblings couldn't believe that their father once lived in such a place, and that even in death, he caused them trouble by sending them unavoidably to where they now stood.

"Totally creepy," Akina shuddered again. And for the rest of the hurried journey the family was silent, glancing at everything they saw suspiciously, especially if it could move.

The host at their hotel looked to them strangely as they entered. "Kumada San!" he exclaimed. "Whatever are you doing out so late? It's not safe in Tokyo to travel at such a time. It's not like Kobe here, you know?" he gently scolded them. "Is the young miss okay?" the hotel manager asked worriedly when he saw the ashen color of Nami's cheeks and the glazed look that had yet to leave her expression since the incident.

"I-I- G-ghost!" Nami stammered out.

The hotel manager blinked in surprise before falling into a shamed silence, his shoulders slumped a bit. "I should have warned you," he sighed to himself.

Akina came forward with an accusatory look on her face. "Yes! Yes, you should have!"

"But would you have believed me?" the manager asked wisely. "I've warned countless tourists before and they all come back looking like Kumada San over there if they stayed out after dark, as if they had not expected it. In truth, they did not believe me."

"Older Sister Nami would have!" Akina put her hands on her hips with an unforgiving frown on her face. "She believes in ghosts, and such a scare is not at all good for her health."

"I deeply apologize," the manager sighed.

"No, Manager San." Iku smiled forgivingly. "Nami Chan may have believed you, but my other children wouldn't have." At this, both Hiroshi and Akina sputtered out protests that were ignored. "They would have pushed that such things were superstitious and laughed at Nami Chan for believing. We wouldn't have turned out any differently than now, only Nami Chan would have led even worse of a day, forced to go out with such beliefs in her head."

The manager blushed a bit in shame. "Have you eaten yet, Kumada San?" he inquired after a pause, not wanting to continue the subject of who was guilty for Kumada Nami's current conditions.

"We had a snack along the way," Akina interrupted rudely, unwilling to admit fault still.

The manager smiled. "Then, why don't you have dinner on the hotel, having given you guys quite the scare."

"And what about breakfast?" Akina asked, rubbing her chin with a furtive twinkle in her eyes.

"Akina Chan!" Both Iku and Hiroshi scolded her for rude behavior. Mother and son were soon bowing and blushing in utter shame to the manager again, while apologizing for Akina's actions all the way.

"No, no, it's alright. Breakfast too," the manager laughed in amusement, waving away Iku and Hiroshi's worries. "Breakfast is on the house, too, Kumada San." The manager nodded amiably.

_To be continued…_

* * *

**_Sakura_** - _cherry tree, cherry blossom(s)_

**_Miko_** -- _Priestess_

**_Hentai_** -- _Strange and perverted man/woman_

**-** _Minako__ is giving a story of her memories. However, there are details in the flashbacks she would be omitting. As readers, I just want you to keep in mind that not everything written in the flashback sessions are told to the Kumada family. Just bits and pieces that Minako might have wanted to touch upon. But because I want to elaborate a bit more so that you may see the history this story is built upon, please know that the Kumadas are hearing the tale of a particular memory you're reading but not everything you read is what they hear._

**-**_ Ami is saying that she doesn't want to run into the ghost of Usagi or Mamoru (though both are officially MIA - not confirmed dead). Both Luna and Artemis died in the event of 2000. Artemis survived the event but died from internal injuries. Both the cats' ghosts are in Tokyo! (That is explained in a side story though, so it won't be focused in this story.)_

_- Rei's "**blindness**" refers to the fact that she can no longer have visions, not because she cannot see._

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_******

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ Dabs away tears of gratitude


	3. Mothers and Daughters

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"There are a lot of things one _

_learns__ of only by living life. _

_And I grew from the regrets of _

_those__ unknowns…"_

**Chapter 3**

**_Mothers and Daughters_**__

"Ow!" The blonde rubbed her head with a wince. "Rei Chan, who had the bright idea of putting so many boxes all into one room?"

Hino Rei turned with an amused grin on her face. "Mina Chan, it's called a storage room for a reason."

Minako made a face. "It's such a hassle, Rei Chan! Do we have to clean it?"

"You're the one who volunteered to help," Rei answered without a sign of pity as she opened another brown-box of miscellaneous items.

"Only because Mako Chan said she was going to cook up a storm!" Minako brightened at the thought before her expression turned sour at the sight of the untouched boxes before her. The blonde's stomach decided then to grumble in agreement to her earlier statement.

Rei twitched a bit at this admission. "I think she volunteered so she wouldn't have to help clean," the miko grumbled to herself.

"Eh?" Minako asked cheerfully.

"Nothing, baka!" Rei snorted and went back to sorting.

"Everyone!" Blue eyes peeked from beneath a pink-hoodie and white jacket as a form bobbed up the stairs. "I'm here!"

Rei and Minako both peered out at Tsukino Usagi who had happily declared her arrival while Mizuno Ami followed not too far behind, puffing up the stairs as she trailed after the energetic blonde. "Sorry for being so late, everyone!" Ami sighed as she tried to catch her breath, "But cram school went overtime today." Ami patted down her school uniform before smiling at the exasperated face of Rei and the welcoming grin that Minako wore.

"Welcome!" Minako waved.

"Welcome," Hino Rei sighed with far less enthusiasm. "I think no one really wants to help clean." The miko rolled her eyes as she went back into the shed. Minako lingered outside with their friends, finally finding an excuse to run out of the place she'd been unfortunate enough to be stuck in for most of the day already.

"Rei Chan's not coming out a little too?" Ami asked sheepishly.

Minako set her hands on her hips. "That place is a nightmare! I don't know what gave her the idea that even with everyone's help she could clean that old junk-yard up." Usagi was not paying attention at all to the conversation as she sniffed the air and squealed to herself.

"What's the matter, Usagi Chan?" Ami asked cautiously.

Minako's eyes took on a dangerous sparkle at that moment. "Kino Makoto's Special Cooking!" Minako declared as her fist rose. In that moment, the two blondes shared a look that only they could understand before dashing off towards the back of the shrine where the kitchen was located.

"Mako Chan!" the two girls squealed after one another.

"Oh, my," Ami murmured.

"Mina Chan, when are you going to come back to help me—" Rei stuck her head out to see Ami standing by herself in the courtyard.

Ami blinked at Rei for a second. "Mako Chan finished cooking dinner," Ami offered weakly as she began to edge towards the other side of the shrine. Rei raised a brow at her friend who smiled sheepishly under the scrutiny. "We better go if we want any leftovers by the way Usagi Chan and Mina Chan ran for it," the blue-haired girl suggested a little desperately.

Sighing, Rei walked out of the storage room, wiping her hands on a piece of cloth. "I guess it can't be helped," the dark-haired miko smiled in quiet defeat.

After lunch, Ami valiantly offered to help Makoto clean the kitchen which left the storage shed up to just Rei, Minako, and Usagi. "I can't believe there's so much stuff here!" Usagi blinked as she slid opened the paneled door. "Creepy," the odango-blonde muttered as she shrunk back a bit to the cool evening outside.

Rei rolled her eyes. "For volunteers, you guys sure are reluctant." The miko walked in without hesitation and turned on the only light bulb in the room. Without pausing to wait for the others, she began to open another box of old, discarded things.

"What's in these boxes anyway?" Minako asked when it got too quiet.

Rei held a book in her hands and looked up at her friend. "Well, mostly records," she murmured as she whipped the dust away from the cover.

"Records for the shrine, huh?" Usagi asked, peeping out from another corner of the room. She sneezed at the gathering layer of dust she found when she set down a pretty heavy box to open, herself. "There must be a lot of records! Hikawa Jinja's a pretty old place, isn't it?"

Minako agreed readily. "Luckily, Rei Chan picked a New Years to clean this place when she could get cheap labor, like us, to help." Minako sighed dramatically as if both herself and the others were being taken advantage of by Rei.

"What? You offered!" Rei glared at her friend before turning haughtily back to the things in the box next to her.

"Eh," Minako sighed. "We're still being taken advantage of," the blonde grumbled.

"What are you doing for Christmas and New Years, Mina Chan?" Usagi asked over the boxes in hopes of deterring her friend from angering Rei further.

Minako glumly replied. "Family trip to Osaka," the blonde whined. "Mother has relatives there that she just _has_ to visit." Minako sniffed haughtily. "Just because they're a bit well-off, she sucks up to them all the time. Even though they have airs and don't treat us with more than what courtesy requires of them. It's really annoying, but Mother insisted this time I go with her."

Usagi blinked in surprise. "You won't be here for Christmas or New Years then?"

"Just for Christmas," Minako pouted. "What about you, Usagi Chan? What are your plans for the holidays?" Minako inquired as she blew away some dust on top of the new box she had before her and waved her hand over her nose and tried very hard not to sneeze.

"Oh, Papa's taking us to a hot spring right after Christmas is over as a present to Mama," Usagi said, grinning slyly, "but, Mamo Chan said he has a wonderful surprise for me for New Years!" The odango-blonde fairly glowed after her happy declaration. "I think it'll be a wonderful holiday, don't you, Rei Chan?" Usagi saw her friend more than a bit preoccupied. "What did you find, Rei Chan?" she inquired with interest.

Rei was silent for a few moments. "My mother's album booklet. I think Grandfather had put it away after her death." The miko's solemn expression sobered the mood.

"Hey, is it interesting?" Minako asked, trying to cheer up the atmosphere. She waddled over to Rei's side with a box before setting it down heavily. The sound startled both Usagi and Rei as they ended up glaring at the sheepish Minako. "Sorry," Minako murmured guiltily.

"What kind of pictures are there?" Usagi asked with equal interest once she noticed Rei's great concentration.

"Pictures of her life," Rei said. "There's her as a baby, her going to preschool, all the way up to when she was in high school with her friends, and some in her later years too." Rei traced over one in particular. "Father…" Both Usagi and Minako shared a perplexed glance at Rei's soft murmur. "There are a lot of memories here," Rei sighed.

"Ah," Minako glanced over Rei's shoulder. "Who's that beautiful woman in the expansive looking kimono?" Minako pointed to a dark-haired Japanese woman, dressed in elegant kimono. "Is that your mother?"

Rei smiled a bit at this. "No, it's my Grandmother when she was younger. Grandfather doesn't talk about her very much, but he has a picture of them in his room, along with Mother's. I think, he loved Grandmother very much when she was alive. But she had fallen ill earlier on in life and she died when Mother was in the middle of high school. Grandfather used to tell me that her and mother would fight all the time, but that was because their personalities were so alike." Rei smiled at the memories. "He says that her favorite flower was sakura. Funny, he used to tell me that one of the reasons he never left Tokyo was because of the sakura trees here and the festivals that went with it. Even to this day, he brings sakura branches from our shrine to her grave when he visits her."

Minako looked over to Rei worriedly when she saw the miko wearing a far away expression on her face. "Rei Chan?"

"Eh?"

"Want to use the Luna pen and pretend to be me for the holidays so I don't have to go to Osaka?" Minako asked abruptly with a hopeful gleam in her pleading blue eyes.

Rei blinked several times in surprise at her friend, not comprehending the request since the change in subject was so unexpected. "Baka!" Rei gave her friend a good whack over the head in exasperation once the dark-haired miko recovered from her initial shock.

"And who said I'd lend out the pen to just anyone?" Usagi joined in with mock anger.

Minako stuck her tongue out at her friends as she rubbed her poor, abused head. "I'll use the Sailor V compact then!" Minako grinned with an arrogant flip of her hair.

Usagi's eyes brightened at the mention of her favorite heroine. "Sailor V compact?" A dreamy expression came over her face. "Want to make a trade, Mina Chan?" The odangoed blonde asked eagerly. "Please, please!"

"Nope," Minako shook her head to the great disappointment of Usagi.

Rei turned from both of them to hide the amused smile on her lips. Still, she could not help but give one more glance to the album sitting in her lap. The shrine held a lot of memories. And yet, sweet as the many days at Hikawa Jinja were, they always ended too quickly. A lot of losses were found on the peaceful grounds as well, a lot of hopes swept away where the outside world invaded in. "Mother…" Rei traced the picture of a smiling, beautiful woman standing next to an equally regal looking man. "When did the world invade the one you knew?" Rei wondered out loud.

"Rei Chan?" Minako glanced over to her in surprise.

"Eh?" Rei blinked at the owlish eyes both blondes were presenting her with. "It's nothing," Rei forced a smile before closing the album firmly. "Do you know what surprise Mamoru Kun has for you, Usagi?" After that, there was only cheerful and embarrassed laughter. And like that of a photograph, there were many words left unsaid beneath the smiles of the captured, but fleeting moments.

**- - - - -**

She yawned, waking to see that they had already arrived at their destination. Sighing, she straightened her kimono the best she could. Lately, she'd been having dreams of the past a lot more. Maybe, it was a sign, but it was hard to tell the difference nowadays between memories and omens of what was to come.

The lamp lights were the only lights shining dimly in the early morning. The last few flakes of snow drifted to the ground as the overnight flurry passed over Tokyo like her memories had passed over her dreams. Soon, when the sun rises, the last of the remaining snow would melt like frost and disappear just as quickly. Perchance, one day, their experiences and memories for this period of time would melt away as well. She wondered what may lie quivering beneath such a thin veneer of change, though.

The car smoothly stopped by the curb and silently parked before the first steps of the temple. A man stepped out, black suit blending into the darkness as he opened the passenger doors. From the dark interiors, she came dressed in a deep-purple kimono. Gracefully, she stepped out and peered up the hundred steps to the looming red torii through the sunglasses adorning her eyes even at such a time in the day. The gates to the temple stood tall and strong in the grayness of the morning. At the look of the clouded sky, she checked her wrist watch and noted the time to be almost seven in the morning. No doubt her friend and hostess would still be sleeping at such an hour. After all, in all the years she had known Aino Minako, the blonde had yet to get in the habit of rising before the sun.

"I'll call if I need anything," she said with an eerie smile. Without a glance over her shoulder to ensure that the man understood, she began her journey up the one-hundred steps.

Her purse hit the side of her leg in a rhythmic beating, while in her arms was a thin, flat silver case the size of a large folder – though not half as thick. She wondered how surprised Aino Minako would be to see her at such a time and during such an hour, her smile widening in amusement. Overhead, two crows cawed at the sight of her in greeting before descending upon her approaching form. "Phobos San, Deimos San," the woman greeted in return. "How have you two been? It has been a long time since I've been here, hm?"

The crows ascended then, cawing replies into the brightening day. Wings flapped, leaving behind black feathers as cheerful chatter could be overheard breaking the silence of the night ending. For a moment, just a moment, the skies seemed red with the remembrance of a time lost as she turned and glanced over the cityscape revealed to her eyes, under the tall red torii. She blinked and the vision was replaced by the sleepy city of Tokyo, only beginning to awaken to the day. No, visions were long in the past and she had not been granted one for sometime now, not since that time.

Turning her back to the scene, she promptly forgot the temporary and fleeting sight that she had caught a glimpse of but moments ago. It was easier to forget such things that could not be changed. Memories, in the end, would only hurt her if she wasn't careful. All those years ago, it no longer mattered anymore. Not that time, not when she had once felt so much and yet knew so little. Back when she had been secure in her knowing nothing but thinking she knew everything because of who she had been.

That time, when she could not smile genuinely from the bottom of her heart. Such a time was not worth remembering.

**- - - - -**

Kumada Akina yawned for the third time during breakfast. "I can't believe we had to get up this early!" Akina groaned as she leaned back in her chair and tried to doze. The night before she had had a hard time sleeping, pondering over the things that Aino Minako had only hinted about in her telling of the ghosts of Tokyo. The events of the day kept playing itself out in Akina's mind, and the meeting with the ghost on the Tokyo streets disturbed Akina more than she had been willing to show. Akina was now, more than ever, curious of the woman Hino Rei, who Minako said so little about. It would be a lie to say that Akina wasn't also curious about where or why the ghosts roamed throughout the city of Tokyo, though every instinct she had gained in the last few years of her life told her to pack up and go back to the safe and secure Kobe she knew and loved, and never look back…

For such a talkative hostess, Aino Minako sure was tightlipped when it came to her friends, and vague about everything else concerning them. The trait was admirable, Akina acknowledged that, but at the same time it was equally frustrating as well. Their blonde hostess gave such an interesting and unbelievable tale that it was difficult to believe, but Akina recognized that there were truth indeed in the urban legends that circulated about Tokyo, things no rational mind would accept without evidence.

"By the way you were whining last night, I'd have thought you'd be the first to go to bed," Hiroshi spoke calmly in reply, breaking through Akina's thoughts.

"What?" Akina demanded now that she was wide awake.

Nami sighed deeply in disappointment. "Give it a break, you too. Peace and quiet in these early hours is all I ask for."

"Oh!" Akina fumed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Can't you ever interrupt after I've had the last word?" She demanded.

Nami sighed again, this time in defeat, but wisely chose to say nothing at all to her sibling's provocations. "I'm at least glad that Mother isn't here to hear your morning dilemmas as well," Hiroshi continued on when he saw the cool disinterest on their eldest sister's face.

"Baka!" Akina thumped him on the head. "Stop trying to look cool when you're spouting such stupid things."

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Hiroshi demanded, rising angrily and towering over his older sister. Rubbing his head, he glared at her through dark lashes. "Can't you see we're in public?"

"Then stop acting like such a fool! If you act like that then I can act like however I want to as well!" Akina poked his chest with her finger. "I'm your older sister, so you should start acting in your place, _Little Brother dear_." In no time they were growling at each other again.

Nami cheerfully announced that she had to go see how Mother was doing before hurriedly exiting out of the chaos that her siblings created whenever and wherever they went together. If it weren't for these trips that made the two stay in such close proximity, another world war might have been avoided, Nami thought to herself ruefully. "Mother?" Nami knocked gently on her mother's door. "Breakfast has been going on for sometime now," she spoke through the door.

Iku opened the door with a laugh and a smile on her lips. "Those two," she sighed.

Nami looked at her mother with a collected expression as she reached over and touched her mother's cheek. "You've been crying again?"

"Eh?" Iku sucked in her breath too quickly. "Mm," she admitted in defeat when the expression on her eldest daughter's face did not change. "This city is one of many memories. Perhaps, it is why the ghosts are drawn to such a place. Many people's dreams are tied to this place, as were many lives that were tied to these dreams. Somehow, one way or another, it started somewhere like Tokyo. For your father and myself, it was Tokyo where our most important dreams, those closest to our hearts, began."

"One day," Nami said as she drew close and hugged her mother, "will you tell me such a dream of the past?"

Iku patted her daughter's arm. "Maybe, but you have your own dreams to live for now." Nami said nothing as she followed her mother into the hotel room and Iku sat by the window looking out. "The view is very nice, don't you think, Nami Chan? I can see the ocean from here, and sometimes, I think I can smell it again. The fish market, the polluted waters, the salt in the air and the rotting piers." Iku closed her eyes. "It is not a very pleasant smell, but one from the past. Good or bad, it makes me so very nostalgic."

Nami sat down on the bed and glanced at the wall before her with a thoughtful expression. "Mother," she said clearly without looking at Iku, "that woman, Hino Rei San, that you had hoped to introduce to us, she's not there anymore. What do you propose we do now?" Iku was quiet for a long time after the question was asked. So, Nami turned to her mother with a questioning glance. "Mother?"

"Hino Rei San was the first and last woman your father ever loved," Iku said softly. "She was very beautiful, very graceful, and very kind. When I first met with Hino Rei San, I was resentful of her presence in Yuuichiro's life. But, she did not let that bother her. Immediately, I had declared my dislike to her and that I wasn't going to let her steal Yuuichiro away. I said many nasty things to her, things that were unkind and judgmental, all because I was jealous of everything she had, of everything she seemed to have obtained without trials or tears." Nami watched her mother with a hint of pain and awe on her face, feeling as if for the first time she was beginning to understand her mother as not just _Mother_, but as a woman. "Hino Rei San had quite the temper though, so I guess, I can understand Aino San's fear of her wrath. I've not seen much of Hino Rei San's anger, but Yuuichiro used to tell me stories about her temper. He had such a look to him too on those occasions, one between laughter and awe, and he kept that mixture of feelings for her, along with his love."

Nami watched her mother carefully, but the other didn't continue. "I think, Father loved you too, Mother." Nami finally spoke as clearly and as calmly as she always did. "It may have been different from the one he had for this woman of both your pasts, but it was love nonetheless."

Iku smiled a bit at this as she slid her hand away from the window and walked over to her daughter. She sat down next to her daughter and caught Nami's hand in her own. "Nami Chan, if you don't want to marry Kiyoshi Kun, I would understand. I don't really understand why your father pushed for this match. If you truly don't love him or he does not return the sentiment, I would not hold you to the engagement."

Nami tightened her hand on her mother's, her eyes becoming very distant. "Do I really appear so cold, Mother?"

Confused by the question, Iku shook her head. "Nami Chan is a very kind and warm-hearted child." Iku smiled at her daughter. "To this day, she still is."

Nami looked down at her linked hands with her mother's. "Then, I would love for Mother to approve of the match Father made before his death." Iku sucked in a shocked breath, unsure what to say. "I also love Kiyoshi San very much. Though our match may not be one mandated by the heavens, my heart is very content to be with him, always." Nami smiled a small, secret smile of her own.

Iku watched her daughter's face with resignation, noting that there was a resolution in Nami's expression that was against change. Sighing, she set a gentle hand on Nami's back and smiled. _I must have looked like that as well when my mother asked me about Yuuichiro_, Iku recalled. _It must be in the blood of Haruko's daughters to love impossible men_, Iku reasoned as she smoothed Nami's hair and straightened. "You came to get me for breakfast, right?" Nami looked a bit startled but nodded in reply. "Then, let us hurry down there before Akina Chan and Hiroshi Chan disturb the peace anymore, or kill each other." Chuckling softly, mother and daughter exited Iku's room in welcomed companionship.

**- - - - -**

Akina puffed her cheeks at the cool air of winter. "Freezing!" She shuddered as she wrapped her arms around herself. Hiroshi contentedly patted his stomach and chose, for once, not to say anything to provoke his older sister.

Iku smiled at her children as she walked down the side-walk. The black suit she wore made her look exceptionally younger, especially since after dinner Akina convinced their mother to let her hair down for once. Surprising still was that Iku complied. "_Jupiter_ sure was an amazing restaurant," Nami sighed to herself. "When I was eating, I felt as if the food was really profuse with feeling!"

"Now I know what people meant when they say 'cooking from the heart,'" Akina joined in excitedly. "The food was amazing! Even at this time of day, I was amazed to see how many people were there, lined up to go in. Hiroshi Kun, I must thank you for thinking ahead and booking a seat for us last month! After eating the food though, I'd gladly stand and wait for another try, though I'd doubt we'd have really been able to get in if we haven't booked ahead!"

Hiroshi grinned at Akina, and in one rare moment, the two gave each other affectionate glances. Nami smiled herself, amazed a bit that food could do such a thing for the two that professional therapy most likely wouldn't have been able to. "I have to say, after tasting that, I'm not sure I can ever eat anything else with admiration again though," Hiroshi agreed as he flicked the tooth pick he'd been chewing on into a nearby garbage bin. "Still, pretty amazing that a lot of the earnings _Jupiter_ gets goes towards researching for mechanical body parts."

Nami giggled a bit at this. "Only Hiroshi Kun would look up such things when trying to find a good restaurant."

Akina and Hiroshi were both surprised by this but they smiled nonetheless. "Yeah, it is pretty amazing," Hiroshi agreed. "Good food and the money earned from it actually going to a good place, the restaurant's pretty amazing in every aspect. Makes one wonder about the owner, doesn't it?" Akina and Nami both nodded, as Iku listened with slight interest. "I heard he's a pretty interesting man, but no one's got any information on the original owner."

Akina perked up at this. "An old, mysterious gentleman for the owner of such a prominent restaurant? Truly fitting, don't you think?"

"A lot of rumors fly around about him," Nami nodded thoughtfully. "Kiyoshi San was telling me about it a while back. He said it would be so wonderful to meet the enigmatic owner of Jupiter, having balanced success, charity, and humbleness into one so well. I wondered along with him then, what this man must be like." They all pondered on that for a moment before cheerfully giving up on the futile thought.

"Thank you, Mother, for letting us have that bit of a shopping spree." Akina bowed to Iku after they walked some blocks down.

Iku glanced back with another happy smile and fairly glowed. "It was my pleasure!"

"Let's go to the Hikawa Jinja then." Akina clapped her hands together. "I think I'm up to meeting with Aino Minako San again. Last time, I really was rude to her."

Nami nodded, truly amazed at what _Jupiter's_ food had done to everyone. She herself was feeling a lot more light-hearted and happier, even. It was as if, something magical had happened while she ate and the joy that sprung from it wrapped around her whole body, making everything more tolerable and clearer than before. Truly food from another world, Nami thought ruefully to herself. "Kiyoshi San and I have been talking about children," Nami suddenly said. Her tongue and the rest of her body felt as if she had gotten drunk on some very fine wine.

"Children?" Akina perked up with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Nieces and nephews?" Hiroshi joined in excitedly.

"Grandchildren?" Iku sighed dreamily.

Laughing, Nami nodded with a blush of happiness and embarrassment staining her cheeks that resulted from more than the cold. "We kept arguing between three and four. He kept saying even was a good amount better than odd, and I kept saying that I wouldn't mind having a family like our own."

Iku's expression lit up, while Akina and Hiroshi, for just a moment, looked as if they were about to hug her and than embrace each other. However, the moment quickly passed and everyone laughed a little over it. "I didn't realize Kiyoshi Kun was so adamant about even-numbered children." Akina teased.

"Nor did I dream that Older Sister Nami Chan would want to brave the footsteps of our wars while going so valiantly against the greatly persuasive Kiyoshi Kun!" Hiroshi joined in.

"You two," Nami waved her hand at them in mock annoyance, "I really shouldn't have said anything to my own loosed tongued siblings!"

"Hey!" both protested.

Laughing, Iku shook her head at their banter that were no longer filled with the malice of the past. She was really glad, Iku thought, that the family could be like this. Up until now, she had forgotten times when her children playfully teased each other without hurt or anger in their tones. For that, she was grateful for having allowed Hiroshi to sway them into going to the _best_ restaurant in town.

"Ah! The bus is here!" Hiroshi grinned waving a little.

Akina shuddered and looked slightly defeat. "Gah! It's the perverts again!" And without much prompting laughter rang through the crisp, winter air in joyous symphony.

The walk up the hundred steps left them all panting a bit. "No wonder Aino Minako San's in such good shape," Nami gasped. "If I had to climb that every day, I think any fat I gathered from eating and lazing around would be gone!"

"It's so exclusive, up here," Iku agreed as she sat down tiredly by the last step, not minding her suit. "The view is very lovely."

Hiroshi let out a whoosh of air as he leaned against a red torii pole. "Somehow, if I squint a bit, I can almost believe that it's Kobe, here." He sighed with the remembrance of home. "Hikaru Chan called me last night and told me she's graduating earlier than expected," he said out of the blue.

"Hikaru Chan?" Akina asked surprised. "I thought the last time we talked about her, she was still just getting into her junior year. How'd everything change so quickly?"

"Switched her majors," Hiroshi explained. "I was quite surprised myself, but she said it's what she wanted."

"Strange." Akina shrugged a bit. "Most people change majors and have to stay longer. I wonder what's gotten into her. Hikaru Chan, to me, always had seemed to be so ambitious."

"She's been somewhat depressed lately," Hiroshi agreed, "No matter what I do, she doesn't seem to be able to get out of her funk."

"Hm?" Nami scratched her head. "You sure you didn't say something to her? It could very well be something careless and thoughtless? Sometimes, I find that my brother doesn't deal with women particularly well."

"Hey!" Hiroshi protested. "I'm right here! I can hear your insults."

"Not an insult," Nami giggled a bit as she waved away her brother's annoyance, "Just an observation."

"No, I'm sure it has something to do with her family. Hikaru Chan has gotten quiet every time I bring up her mom and dad. I guess, some way, somehow, she'd rather deal with it her own way before she tells me about it. Nowadays, I find myself lingering on such thoughts more and more though." Hiroshi sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, messing up his tresses as he did so. "Everything stopped being so simple when we grew up. Still, I guess, no one can go backwards no matter how much we may want to."

Iku smiled as she patted the seat next to her and Akina plopped down next to her mother. "Age is not determined by the passage of years, but by experiences gained and the growth in a person. If things were simple for you, Hiroshi Chan, why continue to struggle each day to live? Where would the satisfaction of success and the sadness over failures be? All people have hopes and dreams. Each of us remembers the best and worst of times. Still, if we do not struggle for what we desire, if we only got what we asked for in life, never learning of other possibilities... where would the living of it go?" Iku smiled a bit strangely as the words left her lips, her gaze only for the expanse of sky before them. "Struggling to reach even a destination that is unreachable is better than standing still. That is what your father taught me. Your father loved a very beautiful, graceful, and independent woman who did not return his sentiments, at least, not the ones he were looking for. But I'm glad, because of that, he came to me and gave me my wonderful children, the memories of the years we've shared, and at least, a small piece of himself that shall live within me to the last of my days. After all the years we had spent together in pain and joy, I think we were able to learn a lot, together..."

Akina stared at her mother for a long time. _Did Mother know then?_ She wondered. _Did she know about Father's philandering ways? Did Mother find out about the pictures in the drawers and the old love-letters in the shoe-boxes?_ The crows squawked as they fluttered in the afternoon sky, grey but clear of snow or freezing rain. Akina blinked, a heavy sadness settling inside her, replacing the anger she had known for the past year, before and after her father's death. There were so many things she wanted to ask, things that she had wanted to say, but she didn't know where to start or where such a conversation would go. "I wonder where the sun is on such a day," Akina wondered out loud instead, turning her attention away from the million doubts inside her head. Her voice was softer than usual, tempered by her unvoiced emotions.

"Taking a vacation, I guess," Hiroshi joked while his smile remained clear and true. It was a feeling, an expression, made for memories of happy times on a most absurd journey in all their lives. And yet, Akina found herself unable to join the rest of her family, filled, as she was, with the burdens of the unspoken past.

**- - - - -**

Her fingers slid against the silver ring resting just beneath her collar-bone. The sunlight played against her dark hair as she looked down over Kobe from her place on the roof. "Mars San," Hidekai Kyoko called out with a playful smile on her face as she clasped her hands behind her back. Mars Reiko turned to her agent with a raised brow of amusement. "Are you reminiscing again? I was really surprised you wanted to be in Kobe at such a time. You know the only reason I allowed you to come is because it's not so far from Tokyo by jet, though I really think you're wasting money flying that thing. Still, you really must be preparing for the tour," Kyoko admonished Reiko. The agent waved her index finger at the dark-haired singer threateningly, though not lacking the earlier air of playfulness that Hidekai Kyoko always had about her.

"Don't you have family here, Kyoko San?" Reiko asked, raising a brow at her agent.

Kyoko blinked in surprise. "Why, yes. I didn't realize you knew that, Mars San."

Reiko smiled at this. "Did you have a chance to visit them?" Reiko inquired with a light expression in her eyes. Hidekai Kyoko reminded her of her old friends a lot; perhaps that was why Reiko stuck with the rising star of an agent in the business of entertainment. Kyoko was also extremely skilled, if not a bit of a workaholic.

_That makes two of us!_ Reiko thought ruefully to herself.

"No time, no time," Kyoko said, waving her hand with a grin. Reiko looked annoyed at this reply but Kyoko plowed on without notice or care. "Anyway, I thought why don't we use this time to promote for your new CD? So, I booked us a signing at the most urbane place I could find."

Reiko sighed in exasperation. "I refuse to go with your mad schemes a second time, Kyoko San. The last time you used the word "_urbane"_ and _"place"_ together, I ended up in a fishing port, and frankly that is not my idea of urbane in _any_ sense of the word."

Kyoko folded her arms across her chest stubbornly. "I'll have you know we got great reviews for that boat show. It may not be what they expect from the rich and famous Mars Reiko San, but now you've definitely earned your keep with the people.

"Don't forget the fishes," Reiko sighed in defeat when she saw the argument wasn't going anywhere.

Kyoko giggled behind her hand, knowing she won this one. "I promise I won't forget the fishes next time you bring this up, Mars San!"

"How many times have I asked you to call me Reiko instead?" the dark-haired singer inquired.

"Many times, Mars San," Kyoko answered dutifully. "But, you know what they say? A fish is most at home in the ocean."

Reiko wondered if that was even such a saying, but refrained from commenting on Kyoko's innocent mock. Her agent's personality really reminded Reiko of Aino Minako on days like this, but somehow the idea was a bit scary. The world handling one Aino Minako was bad enough, to have two was asking a bit much of it. "If I do this next promotional scheme of yours without complaint before we jet over to Tokyo, will you promise me that you'll go visit your family and relax a little as well?" Reiko asked with all the sincerity and concern she had been experiencing since Kyoko had started to really throw herself into being her agent more than usual, about half a year ago. It was great for Reiko, but lately, the singer had a feeling that Kyoko was not only doing this out of her determination for Reiko to be number one these days. Reiko's hair-dresser had commented on how he no longer saw Kyoko's old boyfriend hanging around anymore, and once Reiko had seen her agent crying after a show. She really would rather not see Kyoko burn out because of a broken relationship and Reiko was going to force the other to take a few days break at least, no matter what the cost.

Kyoko looked perplexed for the first time in days at this request. Reiko remembered being a priestess when she wasn't blind, when her senses would tell her of the wrongs that were bothering a person's heart. Nowadays, it was all guess and go, but unlike the Hino Rei of long ago, Reiko had years of experience with people now. Without her inner eyes to guide her while calling herself Mars Reiko and going down a path she would never have wanted had forced the Hino Rei of old to really see people for the first time. Kyoko smiled and nodded, but Reiko had a feeling that the other wasn't going to pull through on her side of the bargain if Kyoko could slip out of it.

"I'd love to meet them, too!" Reiko exclaimed as if the idea had just gotten itself into her head. She grasped her agent's shoulders to show she was serious. "No tricks, Kyoko San," Reiko warned her agent menacingly, "or I'll make sure I'm late for my premier in Tokyo."

Kyoko tried her best not to look crestfallen and nodded reluctantly. "You're no fun, Reiko San!"

Reiko smiled at this, feeling as if the past had caught up with her in the tiny, short-haired agent. "Too late for bribes now, Kyoko San." The dark-haired singer tossed her hair over her shoulder and smiled a little into the distant skyline. The wind blew at her bangs and pulled at her loose strands of hair, ruffling Reiko's clothes as well in the evening. But the singer didn't mind it at the least nor did she notice the chill as Kyoko shivered from her spot close by.

Kyoko blew at her own bangs in exasperation. "Mou," the agent grumped and stewed silently in rebellion, trying to find a loop hole.

Mars Reiko ignored the other and closed her eyes to the bright daylight before her, remembering a time when she had felt so old but was so young. A time when she had loved someone with an unwilling heart and told a secret that she had no right giving away. Kumada Yuuichiro really couldn't understand the implications of her inability to age. No, he didn't, not until he had to leave her behind with a ghost to fulfill his own duties as a son. It had taken him two years to tie up all the loose ends with his parents and Reiko had been so ashamed of herself for depending on his calls and hearing his familiar voice on the other side of that receiver.

But she had loved him in her own way. There was no use denying it now, now that he was gone.

Reiko had never wanted to say _"I love you"_ in person or over the phone; she was not that type of girl who believed in such petty words, not even when she had been at that stage just before woman-hood. Still, Yuuichiro and she were such innocents then. He didn't understand until returning to her, seeing her face that did not age or change, and realizing she was the same as the Tokyo he had left behind in his leave for the real world, trapped and unmoving while he moved on. Kumada Yuuichiro was a strange anomaly in Tokyo then, but he had been sent out of the city that week by the news of his own father's unfortunate death. In a way, it was the beginning of the end of their relationship, the beginning of the end for both of them.

Reiko gently touched the ring near her throat, the one he had proposed to her with even though there had been uncertainty in his eyes and rebellion against his father's last wishes in his heart. But in her own heart, Reiko knew that Yuuichiro did not understand the promises of such a ring, and at that time, neither did she. In the end there was no future for people like her and him; not for people like her who could not move forward because of circumstances, nor for those like him who must because of mortality and the responsibilities present in his life. Such sacrifices they had made, after all these years she wondered -- even after having risen so high in the world and changed in her own way -- were such sacrifices she had chosen to make then really worth it in the end? Did she make mistakes along the way that she had yet to discover in those choices?

"Mars San?" Kyoko's soft voice pulled Reiko away from the edge of the balcony.

"Yes?" Reiko turned to her agent. Kyoko apparently had not left her side in her broodings. The singer felt slightly embarrassed at having been caught so deeply in her memories that she had not noted the other's presence for quite some time.

"Such a gloomy air doesn't fit you, you know?" Kyoko said, smiling and looking very strong. "The mysterious image is all good, but we don't really want to attract the wrong crowds," she warned.

Reiko twitched under her eye and suppressed the need to fist her hands in exasperation. "Thank you," Reiko replied as calmly and as coolly as she could, "for being concerned about me." The singer began moving for the stairs and glanced over her shoulder to see an equally pensive look come unexpectedly over Kyoko's face. "Are you coming, Kyoko San? Or are you going to go against your own advice?" Reiko raised a challenging brow at the other.

The look was gone in an instant as Kyoko brightened and swirled so fast around her heels, the agent tittered a bit for balance. Laughing at her own clumsiness, Kyoko came running after Reiko with a grin. "I'm getting so old, you know?" the agent joked. "No, no, never mind, Mars San," Kyoko sighed in defeat, "you're too young to comprehend such things at such an age." The irony Kyoko's words brought only a weak smile over Reiko's face, but the other woman had already gotten too far ahead to notice.

"So," Kyoko gleefully put her hands together and glanced over her shoulder at Reiko with a predatory light in her eyes. "I was thinking this time we should try for a zoo..."

_To be continued..._

* * *

**_Baka_** - _idiot_

**_Sakura_** - _cherry tree, cherry blossom(s)_

**-** _Japanese people do tend to visit their beloved, dead relatives on a yearly basis. It is good religious and social form for children to visit deceased parents on their parent's death anniversaries. If you're interested it, look up Japanese Funeral Rites or anything similar to that on Google. I'm relating this by memory, I could be off a bit (or a lot)._

**-** _The memory sequence in the beginning is not from the woman who stepped out of the car in the scene after the memory recall. I just made it seem like it was, but it would have made no sense for whoever it was – I won't say who – to dream up a memory that's not hers. In case you're confused, I just want you to know that I know it's confusing and that's the way I planned it (if you're not, maybe you are now). _[Author sweatdrops]__

**-**_ If people are confused when Minako said she'll use her Sailor V Compact, in the manga, Sailor V has her own compact for disguises. It works much like the Lunar pen, except, it's like a powder case... in my opinion, it's cuter. Usagi's especially jealous since she really adores Sailor V, Minako's old alter ego. Hence, the sudden desire to "trade"._

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_****__**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ [Dabs away tears of gratitude]


	4. Errors In Judgment

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

"_Don't look at me that way._

_Not when you don't know who_

_it__ is you are looking at. I'm not_

_who__ you think I am, and the same_

_is__ true for you._"

**Chapter 4 **

**_Errors In Judgment_**__

"There's a lot of sadness in this world," the blonde said, setting down the tea cup with a soft clink. "I never really wanted to see that when I was young. When I think back, there were a lot of times I had reasons to cry over it, but I kept smiling because I didn't want to face the pain. It would hurt too much and at that time, the only way I knew how to respond to it is smile and run pass it as quickly as possible." She slid a finger down the silver cover with a nostalgic expression on her face. Slowly she leaned back as she brought the cup to her lips again, hesitating as her lips touched the rim. "I guess, I was very ignorant back then, hm? Thinking that I was really smiling in the face of pain, that such ignorance was a sign of strength..." She closed her eyes and took a sip before surprise came over her face. "Eh! It's completely cold now! Ah, not again—!"

"Aino Minako San?" a voice called out from the courtyard.

"Excuse me," Minako sighed in exasperation as she looked at her guest. "I really wasn't expecting you, but I have guests to attend to now who I am expecting."

"Mm," the woman replied as she poured herself another cup of cooled tea.

The blonde rolled her eyes at the other's lack of reaction to her words. Without further waiting she exited the room and found that Kumada Akina had already let herself in and was walking around the hallways with a curious look about her face. "Eh?" Surprised, Akina jumped a bit on seeing her blonde hostess. "A-Aino Minako San! I hope I'm not intruding, but no one replied and we called several times, and your door was opened—" Akina explained with a nervous laugh as she bowed quite a few times over in apology.

"Mm," another voice came behind Aino Minako, "it seems like she went to Jupiter's place, this one."

"Eh? H-How did you know?" Akina blinked in surprise to see a shape from the shadows emerging.

Minako sighed again in exasperation. "Must you always make such a dramatic entrance, Setsuna San?" With a shrug of her shoulders Minako turned back to Akina with a welcoming smile. "Well, now that we all met, is the rest of your family here?"

Perplexed, Akina reluctantly nodded as Minako invited everyone back into the guest room that seemed a bit darker than usual. "Sensitive eyes," the blonde explained when she saw her guests glancing around. "Setsuna San doesn't like the light very much."

"Like a Vampire?" Hiroshi asked excitedly.

Minako looked startled but amused at this suggestion while her other guest laughed heartily. "Mm," the mysterious woman nodded her head. "Though it's not just sunlight that my eyes cannot withstand. My eyes are very sensitive these days to any type of light. I am constantly forced to travel at night too; it's a real bother." The woman nodded her head in polite acknowledgment at Kumada Iku before smiling in a friendly manner at everyone else. "My name is Meiou Setsuna, and I am an old friend of Minako Chan, here. I am surprised that she had guests. Minako Chan usually doesn't have many people visiting her at such a place. Still, it is nice to meet you." A round of "Nice to meet you"s and introductions went around the room in reply.

"Are you okay, Aino Minako San?" Nami asked their hostess worriedly.

Their blonde hostess shook off her startled expression and smiled a bit uneasily at her guests. "N-nothing," she reassured them.

"If you don't mind me getting right down to business," Iku sighed as she looked down to her lap. "I had originally planned to have my children come here with me so we could hand the ashes of my husband over to Hino Rei San, as he had requested on his death bed. However, it does not seem she would be returning any time soon. I have an obligation to keep to my husband to see his last wishes fulfilled, but Aino Minako San, do you really have no idea where the mistress of this shrine had gone?"

"Mm." Meiou Setsuna smiled her close eyed smile. "Rei Chan's on tour."

"A-Ah," Minako quickly interrupted. "Younger Rei Chan," their hostess nervously explained. "Hino Rei San's been gone for some time. I can try to contact Rei Chan so that she could receive the ashes in her mother's place. That is, if you don't mind?"

Iku blinked, surprised. "Hino Rei San had a daughter?" Surprised, Iku looked to her children for support.

"Why didn't you inform us of this yesterday?" Akina demanded in annoyance, the mood created by lunch quickly dissipating. "When we were here, you didn't give us that impression at all. Is that who visited us when Father was in the hospital? That woman who came to his funeral? But she called herself Mars Reiko San, so she's the '_Rei__ Chan_' you're always talking about?"

"Hino Rei San's daughter was at the funeral?" Iku asked, alarmed that she had just found out about such a thing.

Akina paused at this and shot a nervous glance at their mother and then Hiroshi. "I- I- um- guessed that to- uh- be her," she stuttered.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Iku demanded. "When you learned that she was the woman I was searching for--"

"Her daughter, you mean?" Akina weakly supplied.

"It doesn't matter." Iku shook her head once in anger. "Why did you not tell me of this incident?"

Akina looked down shamefully to her hands on her own lap that clutched in utter frustration. "I did mention this yesterday," Minako grumbled. "Still, Rei Chan, knew?" Minako asked surprised. Their blonde hostess' voice was very small.

"Akina Chan?" Nami inquired worriedly over at her sister, who everyone was now looking at with varying degrees of perplexity.

"She knew." Akina clutched her hair with one hand. "A-and I thought she was his mistress, okay?" Akina yelled out, "Is that what you wanted me to say? It hurts so much, that he would have her, after cheating our family of everything for such a woman."

The slap from Iku was a surprising sound that echoed throughout the temple grounds. "Don't ever say such a thing." Iku's voice was very soft and very controlled. "I am ashamed to have raised such a daughter." Akina's eyes trembled beneath her mother's stare, which was filled with emotions she did not wish to name but hurt for her to see. "Do you think so lowly of your father, Akina? Do you think so lowly of me too? Do you look down so much on strangers you don't know? Living this way, always suspicious of any woman that you meet... I saw it in your eyes so many times before, but I was a bad mother and ignored the signs. I didn't realize the extent of your selfish fears." Iku bowed her head and the act was harsher than any blow she could have dealt to Akina.

"I cannot believe my daughter even believed that I had led such a worthless existence. I am so utterly ashamed," her mother wept, the weeping of a woman who had lost a lifetime.

"M-mother?" Akina reached out a hand but Iku turned away. "I-I'm sorry--"

"Akina." Nami took back her sister's hand with a shake of her head, restraining Akina with a glance and a small touch. "Even you should have learned by now that sometimes all that words can do is hurt others more," Nami whispered into her sister's ear. A gentle scolding that was not meant for anyone else's ears.

"She sure has a fast digestive system if even Jupiter's food influenced her so little," Setsuna spoke, breaking through the sound of Iku's weeping. The strange woman's closed eyed smile was slightly disturbing to be seen at that moment, shadowed and dark as it was already. "Akina Chan, is it? A very short and concise name for such a muddled person. How such a thing happened is beyond me."

"Hey!" Akina surged forward, only to be pulled back again with Nami's hand over her mouth and Nami shaking her head at her younger sister.

"Stop, Akina Chan," Nami whispered. "Please, stop."

And time seemed to have stopped then, at that very moment.

**- - - - -**

The air was cold and evening settled over the darkness. Aino Minako somehow convinced Hiroshi to help set the table with her while Iku and Nami cooked in the unused kitchen. Boxes of ramen were found when Minako sheepishly introduced them to the room. "I don't cook very well," their hostess explained with a nervous laugh. So, Nami suggested that she go shopping while Iku rested a bit in the guest room. They had all been reluctant to stay, but Minako insisted that they do.

"Parting like this would be something Rei Chan will surely scold me for," the blonde had cheerfully explained. "It will also weigh greatly on my conscience that I was such a bad hostess to have my guests leave in tears and frustration. I truly desire you to stay so that the honor of this temple will not be marked with the follies of my inaction."

With no other choice, the Kumada family relented, though none were very willing except for Hiroshi who worked very hard to hide his excitement. Of course, Minako wasted no time to set him to work on helping prepare for the meal like everyone else, except Akina. Akina slipped out onto the porch, though she knew she did so to lick her wounds and to avoid her mother. It hurt to see her mother's back, knowing it had turned on her because her presence was so vile. Akina hadn't meant to hurt Mother, she just couldn't find it within herself to forgive Father either.

Minako hadn't been giving Akina the friendly eye either. Ever since the mentioning of Hino Rei, the other's attitude towards her had become extremely cold. Akina realized that she probably insulted the blonde when she passed such a judgment on a life-long friend that Aino Minako hadn't really stopped talking about since they had met the woman. Come to think of it, Minako probably respected Hino Rei a lot. Perhaps, even their blonde hostess was blind to what was so obviously before them all. That Mars Reiko (or was it Hino Rei?), whoever she is, may really be a home wrecker for everyone--

"It's a nice and crisp night out, hm?" The soft, sultry voice of Meiou Setsuna greeted Akina. Startled out of her thoughts, Akina whipped around to see the smiling woman who leaned back against a wooden pole and sighed into the night. "The stars are so beautiful. Too bad you can't see them clearly at all with all the pollution in the air."

"Meiou Setsuna San?" Akina murmured softly in surprise.

"Mm," the dark-haired woman answered and faced Akina with a smile. Akina had yet to see the woman's eyes, but she would be a fool to not see the beauty in Setsuna. These women she had met, Mars Reiko, Aino Minako, and now, Meiou Setsuna, all carried a different kind of beauty about them. They were woman who could not help but be noticed, and for that Akina could not trust them completely. Still, there was something very compelling about Setsuna, something very strange in the air about her.

"For such a young thing, you brood a lot, don't you?" Setsuna's grin never faded, even as Akina's expression changed from surprise to annoyance. "The things you brood over are very important to your heart, but the words you bring out from that deep place are ones forged from fear. Such words will always bring pain to yourself and those close to you. The things you say about others show that once you had trusted too implicitly. Now, having lost one great thing, you have lost that ability to give such simple trust completely, even if it is to your own family. Such extreme changes reveal a great betrayal, or utter stupidity."

"Eh?" Akina pounded the floor harshly. "Who are you to judge?" she demanded.

"Mm," Setsuna answered nonchalantly, "There you go getting angry again without much provocation. Simply because I gave one little insult you're already jumping to conclusions. You must believe in your own inferiority pretty deeply to have your buttons that easily pushed." Growling at the woman didn't work very well, since Setsuna simply ignored her. "Everyone had to face such insecurities, and they all hurt someone during this stage in life. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to learn such a lesson. It just saddens me how much needless pain is caused in the process."

"Spouting such ideals, you seem like you've experienced much for someone who can't be more than 25 or 26 years of age. Stop fooling around with me, stop treating me like a kid—"

_"—I'm not a kid anymore!"_

_A voice from my past?_ Akina blinked in realization as the feeling of déjà vu left her feeling strangely empty. She had said such similar words to her Father, when she had loved him so completely. On that night, two years ago, everything had changed.

"—I-I'm not a kid anymore," Akina finished weakly.

"Mm." Setsuna smiled at the sky. "Isn't that something we would all like to believe in?"

**- - - - -**

The sound of the cello played out over the quiet house, flowing with the quiet breeze that seeped into every open-windowed room and down deserted hallways. The sheer curtains fluttered by the opened balcony doors as her lone figure darkened the doorway, her shadows playing along the floors as the sun began its descent towards the horizon. The melody was sad, but the cello's alto left a lingering sorrow that was different than the crying violin. It suited her mood, filled with regrets and doubts as she had been the last few days.

"I didn't know you played." A familiar voice broke the silence after her piece was over, along with a short applause. "I would not have thought you were the type for cellos, but now that I've heard you play I think it suits you, Setsuna."

Meiou Setsuna smiled a bit at this. "I always thought you were more of the piano type myself when I first saw your pictures in a magazine." She glanced at the bow in her hand with a bit of nostalgic amusement in her eyes. "I haven't played in a long time, not since I was Sailor Pluto. Music has always just seemed to be noise to my ears; I never really knew what people were listening to when they heard music." Setsuna's mouth turned grim as she gently set aside her instrument and looked over to meet her companion's amused scrutiny. "I know I may have been a bit difficult to be with these last few days, but there have been quite a lot of things on my mind. I'm sorry about that, Michiru. What I said to Haruka yesterday was uncalled for."

"You should apologize to her instead if you truly feel guilty over the incident," Michiru answered with a steady gaze leveled with Setsuna's own. "And anyway, Haruka should not have pushed you when she did. Sometimes, she's a bit dense about the more sensitive things in life." Michiru sighed a little dramatically, but Setsuna could only offer a weak smile to the playful gibe.

The two were silent once more and Setsuna turned to view the sunset, trying to preoccupy herself enough to not feel uncomfortable under Michiru's none too subtle stare. "I never did like music very much as a girl. My father really pushed me towards the cello when I was young and I hated it then, but he insisted since he always said it has such a sad sound. Even now, I cannot understand what he liked so much about it, or why he was so drawn to things that only brought melancholy to mind. I never understood the allure to such sounds, especially since music has always been just notes and beats and sound to me, nothing about it moved me. But when he died, this sound and these strings made me feel close to him whenever I played." Michiru lifted a brow but did not push Setsuna to tell her more. Of all of them, there had always been an unspoken rule between the three of them to not talk too much of their pasts. Up to now, there was comfort in the simple and supportive relationships they had created based on such premises. Each of their lives was complicated enough without getting entangled with memories of past pains and past sacrifices. The three of them had instead focused on making newer and happier memories with Hotaru, and each other. But lately, that life had been crumbling under the pressures of new battles and trials.

"When I went to University, I just never had the time to enjoy the things I did when I was younger. And when the memories came, her—" at this Setsuna became flustered a bit before correcting herself "—my memories as Sailor Pluto, I guess it was a bit overwhelming to find yourself as somebody else. For a time, after the battles were over and we had settled down, I thought some of my old memories would drive me mad." Crimson eyes stared out into the horizon, and if it seemed they shined a bit brighter, both said nothing of it. "Now, somehow I miss that part of me that I had discovered not long ago. Now that the part of me that I had always been a little bit afraid of is gone, I'm not sure what to do. Now, when my help is needed most and I am so willing to give it… Only now do I become so useless."

"Setsuna…" Michiru murmured as her detached look softened. "Would you mind if I joined you?"

Setsuna was surprised by her friend's request but the aqua-haired woman had already turned away to retrieve her violin before a protest could be given. "What would you like to play?" Setsuna asked the other when Michiru returned with her violin.

"Why don't you lead and I'll follow," Michiru replied nonchalantly. The next half-hour was spent filling the house with sad music as the sun began to set. "Did you play back in that time?" Michiru inquired. "I don't quite remember the past as well as I would like. Maybe, a part of me doesn't really want to remember such a time though," she added pensively. Her violin took on an especially high, tearful tone as her voice blended into her music.

Setsuna closed her eyes, letting the familiar sound flow over her, not answering for awhile. It was the only piece she had ever written, and it was done in the memory of her father when he had passed away. It was what he would have wanted to be remembered by – the music he always seemed to love so much more than the daughter he had created. "I don't know," she answered honestly. Michiru paused and looked at her olive-skinned companion, but Setsuna continued on, her song filled with more than sorrow. Somehow, since that day on the battlefield when Sailor Pluto's powers vanished before everyone's shocked eyes, something had happened within Setsuna that no one had seen coming. Every layer of indescribable emotion came through the vibrating strings beneath skilled fingers. "I have forgotten, such a time." It was awhile after the admission before the music came to a final halt. Only then did the crimson eyes turn to meet Michiru's own questioning gaze, but there was little doubt remaining in what had been a confused and dazed stare that had lingered in Setsuna's gaze, even when the dark-haired woman had been filled with anger and denial.

Setsuna smiled. "Why remember sadness? Why remember helplessness? I had given up so much to be a Sailor Senshi, and now, I can no longer save the world. Now, I am finally able to realize the fact that I am useless. How can I hope to make others happy if the old me did not and could not remember what true happiness is? I don't know an ounce of happiness without sorrow, isn't that pitiful? I didn't understand any of the things I was fighting to protect; at least, Sailor Pluto could not remember anymore." Setsuna's aloof gaze turned to the world splayed before them. "I was very angry at first. I wanted to know why I was the first and only one to lose touch when I was the oldest and my duties were so important." Her smile became faint, and yet, it was ever present. "But that time for anger and wounded pride has passed. Now, I just want to remember who Meiou Setsuna was before her duties, I want to remember how it felt to be happy, innocent, and a child again. What is the point of remembering sadness, I wondered. What is the point of lingering on things that cannot be changed? I felt sorry for myself for some time now, too, but that too has passed with this new resolution to retrieve what was once lost to me."

"Setsuna?" Michiru was still quite unsure as to how to respond to those cynical words and that empty smile on Setsuna's face.

"I'm sorry I will not be able to protect this earth with you anymore. I wish you luck with the last battle." Setsuna set aside her equipment and reached over to the small, round table on the balcony where a pair of sunglasses lay. "This was my last sunset, Michiru." The dark-haired woman put on her glasses with a wistful grin. "The doctors tell me that I'm going blind, and I know my eyes are getting more and more sensitive to light as the days go by." Tears fell down her dark cheeks, sliding past the shaded lenses that hid her crimson eyes from speculation. "So don't think these are tears of sadness. It's just the sun. Ironically, I guess the light is what really hurts me in the end..."

Michiru gripped the neck of her violin tightly, feeling the bite of the strings against her fingers and fighting back protests that the aqua-haired woman knew would only fall onto deaf ears. Setsuna turned and left the room as Michiru watched her back disappear from the doorway. The aqua-haired woman sighed deeply in defeat when she was once again left by herself. "Did you not gain even an ounce of true happiness with us, Setsuna?" she questioned the empty room before turning to view the setting sun.

Darkness was falling overhead and Michiru leaned her head tiredly against the side of the balcony, hugging her Marine Cathedral close to her troubled heart. "Michiru, Setsuna pass me in the hallway not too long ago. Her expression was a bit strange, but I was more surprised by what she was holding. I didn't know she played the cello," Haruka observed as she entered the room with a thoughtful look in her eyes. The blonde shook her head at whatever it was she was thinking before her eyes located Michiru's figure in the room. "Was it you two I heard from the garage? I don't believe I've ever heard that piece before. Does it have a name?"

Michiru wiped away the tears from her own cheeks and smiled at the surprised look on Haruka's face. "I wonder when we'll look back and miss such a time as today, Haruka."

"Eh?" the blonde inquired with apprehension and concern in her voice. "What are you talking about? Are you alright, Michiru?"

Michiru waved away the question as she put away her violin and then joined a perplexed Haruka on the balcony. "I think," Michiru smiled a bit mysteriously as she linked arms with the blonde who studied her worriedly with hooded eyes, "I will miss this time, even if it's a little sad. And one day, maybe Setsuna will miss this hardship a little, too."

Grimly, they watched the stars appear one by one in silence, hushed by the cooling breeze.

_One day, we'll remember such a time with smiles after all our tears have been cried out. For such a day, it is surely worth fighting for…_

**- - - - -**

"Being a kid isn't so bad, is it?" Meiou Setsuna asked softly into the darkness.

"Eh?" Akina looked over to her companion strangely. _What a strange thing to say after such a long period of silence_, Akina thought to herself.

"Still, your earlier actions up until now," Setsuna trailed off and turned her smiling face back down to Akina, "it must have hurt you a lot, as well as the ones you love. Never being honest to anyone about the way you felt, yet constantly striking out to those closest to you because those were the words always stuck in the back of your throat. Maybe you should have been more honest to everyone earlier."

Akina's voice caught in her throat and any protests she might have had died there as well. Nothing would come out. Faced with the truth spoken so clearly and without hesitation, from a woman who seemed so sure of herself, Akina wasn't quite sure what to make of it. How do you answer such words? How do you reply from the place deep within you that no one was supposed to perceive? Akina looked away as one hand clutched the front of her shirt, over her frantically beating heart that pitter-pattered as nervously as she felt.

"What's it to you what I do? We're strangers after all, you know nothing about me," Akina struggled out. It was infinitely easier talking to the ground than that unwavering smile on such a strange, haunting face.

Setsuna only studied her in silence for a while longer. "All humans collect a set of experiences along the way, each experience unique to that person. However, with billions of people in the world, much of a person's individual experience will be repeated by someone else. Each person's reaction is different, but many reactions stem from the same fears and excitements. Much of these reactions, in the end, are the same. A lot of changes and paths that are chosen to be taken are also similar in a similar society. Strangely, even from different backgrounds, human beings end up experiencing and doing similar things. Perhaps that is what happens when you are the same species." Setsuna rested her head against the wooden beam. "That was what I was taught at a young age. How ever easier it is to group people, to that person, their individual experiences are still precious to them no matter who else experienced it similarly. Sometimes friendships are built on such similarities, sometimes rivalries are as well. Still, to say one has not learned anything from hardship, that is a waste of another's hardship, another's sorrow, especially if it is your own."

"What are you talking about?" Akina demanded, suddenly very angry. "You say everything in such a round about way. Is that how you deal with everything?"

Surprisingly strong hands grasped her face as Setsuna forced Akina to face her. And then, eyes of dark crimson in the shadowed light from the opened door opened and bore down their weighted gaze into Akina's own. Akina had never seen such eyes, ancient like the center of the Earth, something that seemed to have been created long ago. She had read once about the eyes of the gods being like the doors to the passage of time, eyes that seemed to be etched from eras long forgotten, eyes that have seen things that she could only hope to imagine, but she had never before faced such eyes.

The impact was like an electric shock, as if she was stripped bare before another person in the most intimate of ways. Even her first time with her first love could not have been compared to this. It was as if every secret and every thought she ever had, even thoughts she had once been certain no one would understand, was bared to this person before her. Kumada Akina had never felt so naked in front of another person, much less a stranger. Somehow, Setsuna continued to grin at her as if the other woman did not understand the impact those strange colored eyes had on Akina. Those lips held such an expression but the expression did not reach those infinite eyes. The grin seemed emptier as time ticked by slowly in those few seconds, seemingly more wrong now than ever before. Finally, Akina knew how truly wrong she had been about the other. Assuming herself to be more knowledgeable than others, an island suffering silently in the sea of emptiness, for the first time she contended with a being far older than herself. It was all in a gaze that shut once more in a smile.

"You put too much weight on yourself, Akina San." Setsuna broke the silence as she tilted her head, hiding her infinite eyes again behind her closed eye-lids. "Sorrow should always be shared with those closest to you. If you doubt, why not stop accusing others and search for the truth instead? You are not the only one experiencing pain. Perhaps, you might even discover one who suffers more than you do, or at the very least, just as much."

Akina could not find a word to escape her throat then. What do you say to a woman, a stranger, who had possibly already seen every possible answer one could have given to her? Never had Akina felt so small and insignificant. "Dinner's ready!" Their cheerful hostess, Aino Minako, called, poking her head out of the door. "Gosh, Setsuna San, couldn't you even help with making dinner? I heard you were a great cook, but all you did was sitting around, being lazy."

Laughing, Setsuna rose and left Akina to brood once more over her actions. "Sorry, sorry, Minako Chan! I promise to help with the dishes when we're done. Is that better?"

"Sure!" Minako clapped her hands together as Setsuna passed her by. The two exchanged looks but Akina, with her head bowed, missed the quick glances the two women shared. "Well, hurry before the others get impatient, Setsuna San!"

"Sure, sure," Setsuna reassured her with a wave of her hand.

"Akina San?" Minako tentatively glanced at Akina's bowed back. "It's getting cold out there," the blonde tentatively suggested. "Why don't you come in and eat?"

"I don't want to," Akina muttered in childish rebellion after a period of silence.

Minako clasped her hands together troubled, but a rueful smile tugged onto her lips. "It's okay, you know?" The blonde hostess stood in the door way, her shadow cast over Akina's small, huddled form. "Making early judgments on others, even hating them, we all make such mistakes in life." When Akina didn't answer, Minako continued, her voice soft and soothing, "When I first met Rei Chan, I hated her too." Akina's eyes widened at this. "Rei Chan couldn't help but be noticed. She was always beautiful, graceful, and had the airs of someone who could not help but be noticed. Men or women, they could not help but look at her, they could not help but be drawn to her. I too was drawn, but I hated her for that. I wanted the attention for myself. I had officially made her my rival, thinking that she had it easier than me, knowing for sure that she would not know the harshness of life that a white-collared class girl like myself had to endure. She was the daughter of a well known politician, went to a private school, was a priestess at a very well known temple, and she had her whole life set out in front of her while I was still struggling to find out what I wanted and who I was. That was the person I most admired and envied." Akina was compelled to listen, finding little things that made her so very much like Aino Minako, things she would not have dreamt to have in common with the vivacious and talkative blonde hostess. Still a nagging voice crept and hacked at the back of her mind, the descriptions given sounded like she'd heard it all before, somehow...

"A lot of my actions in competing with her in my selfish and secret ways must have exasperated and annoyed Rei Chan a lot. And well I tried to find a flaw in her, but she lived on and treated me no differently. Slowly, I was beginning to feel more and more inadequate from the indifferent attitude she gave towards me..."

_"Don't think I'll let you do so again when your only reason is so pointless and selfish."_

"...I guess, secretly, I just wanted her to acknowledge me. I wanted so desperately to prove to her that I was better than she was or she had ever dreamt of being... that I was the one deserving of the attentions she received without fail. In the end, I just wanted to beat Rei Chan, even though we were so different and she probably never thought of competing with someone like me. In the end, I just wanted her to acknowledge me, to notice me. My goals, somehow along the way, changed. I guess that was the difference between us. It took a while for me to understand what she had long understood that Rei Chan was Rei Chan, and Minako was Minako, that I was her friend and so, in my own way, I was important to her. So I really had no reason to fight with her anymore. We were both good people in our own ways. The way Rei Chan was, the way she carried herself all the time, made me continue to admire and love her. It was her confidence, her arrogance, but mostly, it was because of her dependence on no one but herself, all of those things were what made her so very beautiful and special to me..."

_"Your father loved a very beautiful, graceful, and independent woman who did not return his sentiments."_

"...Rei Chan was a woman who fought valiantly to the end for her friends and her beliefs. She let no one trample over her and was loyal and very kind. I realized, she must have been very lonely before the others and I had entered into her life. That is the woman you accused of being the mistress of your father, the woman you believed to be dirtied and a leech to men too old for her." Minako's voice was suddenly very cold and very angry. "That is why I would never agree to such beliefs. Rei Chan is honorable in the old ways, and she would never depend on anyone, least of all men. She would never degrade herself the way you believe her to have done, at least doing the despicable things you've accused her of would mean that to her. You claimed that you know such a woman better than I did, but you really don't know her at all."

_"Do you think so lowly of your father, Akina? Do you think so lowly of me too?"_

Minako turned her back on Akina, who no longer sat on the steps of the house, hunched as Akina was before. "Dinner is ready. Your sister and your mother worked very hard to prepare it for everyone. You should come in with a gracious smile and join us," Minako told Akina over her shoulder. "Now, you know the kind of woman who came to the funeral of your father, and stood by his bedside with a pure heart, instead of the conniving one you were so sure she had, and least of all the suspicious one residing inside of yourself. In the end, I think Rei Chan had more belief in your family than you had shown me these last two days. You really should apologize to your mother for the things you've said." Minako looked down at her own white socked feet. "Putting such things off will only bring regrets in the end." With that, her hostess left Akina out in the dark even as Akina had turned to silently watch the blonde leave her behind.

"I really--" Akina sighed with a rueful smile on her face "--made a fool of myself today, hm?" Determination flashed into her eyes as she stood, "But Aino Minako San is right, it's never too late to apologize." With a guilty but much more cheerful face, she walked back into the lighted room only to find the dining room was mostly dark with only candles to shine away the darkness. "This is kind of creepy," Akina murmured.

At that moment, she felt as if someone's very cold hand was patting her on the bottom. "Aye!" She screamed as she jumped deeper into the room blindly, gaining the attention of everyone there. "P-p-pervert!"

Minako rubbed her head in embarrassment as everyone looked to Akina as if she was crazy as she covered her bottom with her hands. "Sorry," their blonde hostess sighed, "but I warned you that our resident ghost was a pervert yesterday."

Setsuna was the next to sigh. "Still hasn't changed his habits?" The mysterious woman asked Minako in exasperation as she reached for the well prepared tofu. Setsuna froze as she herself felt someone patting her bust through her clothes, twitching in annoyance as the action was repeated.

_"Granddaughter—"_

"It's disturbing how he says that when he's feeling other women up," Minako admitted in defeat.

Nami was the next victim. The unfortunate woman looked ready to have a heart-attack when she was being groped by exceptionally cold, phantom-like hands.

_"Granddaughter—"_

"Out, you perverted old man!" Minako looked murderous as the blonde waved a fist in the air. "Out! And if you continue, I'll tell Rei Chan all about it when she comes back! Then she'll Aku Ryo Tai San your ass back to the next century, you old fart!"

_"Rei Chan—? Granddaughter—"_

Akina squealed again in outrage as she was now molested from the front. Before anyone knew it, all the females except Iku were rushing outside to shiver in the cold, but safe, winter night, trying to avoid being groped further by the temple's resident ghost. "Eh? Where's Mother?" Nami asked alarmed.

Laughter could be heard from inside. "Apparently, Grandfather only has a penchant and taste for _young_ women," Iku giggled from inside, not the least bit insulted or upset.

"The food you made sure is delicious, Mother!" Hiroshi's voice drifted out to the shivering women outside. "Nami Chan, I totally forgot how well you cooked! You'll surely make Kiyoshi Kun a very happy man!"

"You won't be so happy when I'm through with you!" Akina waved her fist threateningly at those indoors. However, the moment she set foot on the steps, the ghostly form of a very young and handsome blonde man appeared at the entrance of the hallway. He seemed to be patiently waiting for their return, but the leery-expression on his face really turned off any appeal he might have had.

_"Granddaughter—"_

There was no mistaking the lecherous expression on his face though. "Gah!" Akina quickly backed away as she saw the ghostly fingers twitch in a groping manner. "T-That's your Grandfather?" Akina exclaimed in total surprise as she gapped at little. She had the impression he was a scrawny, old man, or a small and chubby one. The term "Grandfather" didn't really go with golden-Adonis with pale skin and what would have been a handsome face if it wasn't twisted into a truly perverse expression.

Minako giggled awkwardly a bit behind a sleeve. "Well, he was." The blonde scratched her head as she looked up at ghost, her expression changing completely as a cold wind blew by them. "This is horrible!" Minako whined as she shivered. Their hostess' face was lined with indigent fury and annoyance as the ghost continued to not budge from his place. "He was never so bold when he was alive!" Minako muttered to herself in defeat.

"Why don't you do something?" Akina demanded. Akina could not help but point accusingly at the ghost that was the only blockade in their way to warmth, and more importantly, to dinner.

"What am I supposed to do, genius?" Minako demanded heatedly. "Punch through his non-existent body while he gropes me more freely? I don't think so!"

"Something tells me you've tried that before, Minako Chan." Setsuna grinned even as she clutched her arms around her body more tightly in response to the wind that suddenly picked up in the courtyard again.

"Shut up!" Their blonde hostess fumed before turning back and waving her own fist threateningly at the grinning ghost that was now leering at them. "I'm so going to make you pay when Rei Chan gets back!"

The ghost only laughed at them though, and it seemed that Iku and Hiroshi was doing something similar. "Mother! At least let us have our coats!" Akina called out into the house, her voice pitched in a loud whine.

Random coats were thrown out, all flying into Akina's face. "Gee, thanks," Akina muttered darkly through the piled clothes on her head.

"I'm glad it's night," Setsuna commented cheerfully. It seemed strange with her constantly smiling expression, and Akina shivered the more as the taller woman plucked a jacket from amongst the ones thrown out to them without another word of complaint.

Nami sneezed miserably even as she donned on a thick jacket herself. "I think I'm going to be sick." The eldest lamented.

"I think we're all going to be sick," Akina gnawed her teeth together in utter frustration.

"But not as sick as he's going to be when Rei Chan is through with him!" Minako promised fervently. A very malevolent grin came over their hostess' normally cheerful face. "I'll make sure of it, you pervert!" Minako shouted the ineffectual threat at the uncaring ghost.

"Look on the bright side," Hiroshi teased from within. "Now you can all lay claim to the fact that even ghosts are very, um, fond of you and your, um, assets!"

"That was unnecessarily lewd," Nami huffed even as she shivered.

"Can someone give me back my bag as well?" Setsuna inquired, and soon a black bag came hurtling out from within the house. The bag clunked Akina in the head and quite nearly knocked the poor woman out like a light. Smoothly, Setsuna caught it as it rebounded, giving the impression that the dark-haired woman had intentionally allowed the bag to hit Akina first.

"You'll get yours!" Akina promised as she swore colorfully, though she did wave her fist a bit at the amused Setsuna as well, wobbling a bit on her legs.

Minako sighed, "I knew this was a terrible idea from the start." To which, Setsuna only smiled mysteriously in the dark, not at all deterred by the cold. The creepy smile though, was a constant that the rest of the women all thought they could definitely do without.

_To be continued…_

* * *

******_Baka_** -- _Idiot_

******_Aku_****_ Ryo Tai San_** -- _The phrase that Rei uses when exorcizing ghosts and other forms of evil spirits_

**-**_ Mars Reiko is Hino Rei's stage name_

**-** _Rei's__ Grandfather's appearance is from the manga. He was a cute blonde, even if he was old... So he must have been really cute when he was younger!_

**-** _Setsuna's__ reasons for constantly smiling are elaborated more in an upcoming side story. The scene from her memories is during the "_End of the World_" battles. She was the first Senshi to lose her powers, and the only one who did before the final battle (as well as the only one who lost her powers in the middle of a battle)._

**-** _Michiru__ asked Setsuna if she "...played at _that_ time?" was in reference to the time before Setsuna was reincarnated. It's an indirect reference to the Silver Millennium as well._

**-** **_Marine Cathedral_**_ is the name of Michiru's violin (in the manga)._

**-** _Because Akina has not heard the story of Hino Rei for some months now, she's not exactly going to recall how similar Minako's story is to the one Gin and she found on their own. But because it should seem familiar to her, Akina's feeling odd about it, she'd probably write it off as déjà vu. Don't we all do that sometimes?_

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_****__**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ [Dabs away tears of gratitude]


	5. A Switch of Roles

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"__It's a do or die world out_

_there__. Eventually everything_

_and__ everyone will have to_

_change__... Now, isn't that a bit_

_predictable__?"___

**Chapter 5**

**_A Switch of Roles_**__

Aino Minako ushered the girls into the shed and searched around for the light bulb. "Wow!" Akina wondered around the room, looking into the dark corners. "I didn't know such a place existed outside the old horror films, but this place is truly an antique!" She ran over to under the light bulb and pointed it out to her sister. "Look, this thing must be decades old!"

"Forty-one years to be exact," Minako answered smoothly. For once, the expression in the eyes of the blonde was very serious and her actions were very subdued.

"You're kidding me!" Akina put her hands defiantly on her hips. "It lasted all this time? I didn't know the old stuff was so enduring."

"Usually, it doesn't endure for more than a year at best." Aino Minako's smile was rueful and her eyes sparkled with ironic humor. "However, everything in Tokyo that has not been replaced with new technology is at least 41 years of age. No one has yet figured out what it is that's keeping these things alive, but very little change seems to occur here. The people here included, don't want change."

Meiou Setsuna brought out a silver folder-like case from her bag. "Like this one," the olive-skinned woman laughed, "very forbidden in such a city." The woman joked, but Minako ended up being the only one who laughed along before an awkward silence soon followed. It just didn't seem to be too funny to either Akina or Nami since neither knew how much truth were in those words or if there were any double meaning underlying the things spoken with such lightheartedness between the two women before them.

"Oh my..." their blonde hostess blinked when she heard Setsuna click it open. "You're actually going to show them?" Minako asked, surprised.

"There are many memories to chose from," Setsuna assured the other. The two women shared a look and silence fell over the room, creating a tense atmosphere. Akina shivered a bit more in the gold light provided overhead and wondered what to say to break the tension.

Smiling uneasily, Minako nodded a reluctant consent in the end. "Alright," their blonde hostess sighed. "Let's show them a memory of our own."

Setsuna looked down at the case on her lap, hiding her own sad smile. "Let's," the woman agreed. Without much prompting, the silver case opened.

**- - - - -**

"Hey, hey look over here!" Dark hair flew into view as a beautiful Japanese woman glanced over to the speaker. "Rei Chan, you're supposed to be smiling in these things."

Hino Rei only raised a brow at this. "Pictures are bad enough. These live recordings are the worst!" The dark-haired beauty put a hand to her hip and gave her audience a very annoyed look. "Mina Chan, why are we doing this anyway? This is not at all natural, way too awkward a thing to keep as a memento."

"It's not a recording, it's a memory download! Anyway, you got used to cameras, why not this?" Aino Minako demanded. "Come on, for your bestest friend!"

"Some friend—" Rei muttered, deciding it best not to inform the blonde that "_bestest_" was not even a word.

Laughing at her grump, Minako threw her arms around the reluctant Rei, cutting off whatever protests Rei might have had. "Say Chee-se!" Minako flashed a V-sign at the viewer.

"Chee-su!" Rei winked and blew an unexpected kiss.

Giggling over their own antics as the moment passed, the two friends walked over and picked up the object that was recording the entire thing. "Who'd have thought?" Rei looked thoughtful as the view changed to her holding a small black ball in her hands. "A memory reader?"

Minako grinned as she held out her hand. "I'm so glad we have the cash for these types of latest deals."

Rei glared at her friend. "You mean using the coupons I was given, Minako Chan?"

The green grass swayed under an unseen breeze, the cherry trees bare of blossoms but still green with life. "Summers used to be for vacations only," Rei sighed as she pulled at her t-shirt with a grimace.

"I love summers!" Minako grinned. "I can wear all kinds of pretty dresses at auditions now!"

"Mm," Rei rested her head on her hands, "how are those things going for you?"

Minako twirled about on the sidewalk, arms extended and making zooming noises, the she paused as she looked back at the pensive Rei. "I've gotten into that commercial!" The blonde announced, grinning. "And, I got myself a new agent for my wonderful future as a SU-PA star!"

Rei smiled ruefully as she leaned back and looked at the blue skies overhead. "Nothing's really changed in all this time, has it?" Minako went zooming off again, flying back and forth. "Ever since she left, everything seems to have stood still. Sometimes I wonder if—" Minako jumped onto the ledge that Rei was sitting on and flew off again in another direction, hopping gracefully over her friend. "Hey, stop that! What the hell are you doing?" Rei demanded angrily.

"Eh?" Minako glanced behind her shoulder over at her angry friend. "I'm doing an airplane commercial," the blonde explained as she hopped down and rummaged into her large bag. "I'm supposed to be flying around like an airplane, and then be a stewardess. After that—" Minako pulled out their picnic basket and got out an apple "—give the viewer the general idea that it's a very homey but elegant type of place that's on sale for everyone to fly on."

Rei looked amused at this as Minako took a large bite out of her apple and began to chew vigorously. "I don't think that random flying is what they're looking for." The dark-haired woman smiled at Minako's antics. "Do you know what type of music they're using?"

Minako nodded but was somewhat distracted as she took another bite of her apple. "Well..." Rei rolled her eyes at her friend. "I'll help you out!"

Minako paused and looked over at Rei. "Help me out?" the blonde asked, surprised. "Help me out with what? I'm just flying around as an airplane." Now, Minako seemed a little peeved at the idea.

Rei smiled. "To be a success, you must grasp every opportunity." Speaking in a low, conspiratorial voice, Rei threw an arm around Minako's neck and began to whisper into the blonde's ear.

Minako blinked in surprise and looked over at the grinning Rei. "Really?" Minako asked excitedly.

"I thought it was a great idea." Rei grinned arrogantly and tapped the blonde on the head with a knuckle. "Trust me, it'll be fun!" And with that, the two began to laugh over it all over again.

**- - - - -**

Honestly, Akina never saw such a happy expression on her hostess' face until that moment. In truth, Akina would never have imagined that such a similar expression was possible on the composed Hino Rei she had met but a few months before.

"A memory box?" Nami inquired with total fascination at the silver case sitting closed on Meiou Setsuna's lap.

Aino Minako smiled. "Oh, something that came and went," the blonde explained vaguely. "The idea was a great one though. Everyone inputs their memories into this little bulb and the machine constructs the memory that everyone gives it into a flowing picture show. It's a really sophisticated idea, but as you can see, it was a bit lacking."

Akina and Nami both nodded their heads a bit dumbly, not really quite sure what Minako meant. "Was that?" Akina hesitated for once. "Was that before Mars Reiko, um, I mean Hino Rei San, got famous?"

Minako gave a pained smile, "Yes," she answered as she smoothed an imaginary wrinkle. "That was when I was still trying to make it in the world of idols and such," the blonde said, looking down at her hands. "It was a very different time then. We had very different dreams and aspirations from what we have now."

"Mm." Setsuna leaned on her hands. "I wonder how much of that is true." The woman smiled, not really looking at anyone.

"Very little has changed in all this time, hasn't it?" Akina asked. "It just seems to me that you all just switched roles, but no one really fit into the role they gave themselves. Back then, the two of you were smiling so honestly. Even if there had been no real change in the relationship between you two, there had been truth and feeling in what you did back then as opposed to the lie you live with now."

Minako and Setsuna both looked a bit startled by this. "Change is needed," the blonde finally said after a bit of silence. Her words seemed a bit dead, lacking conviction but very well practiced. It sounded like an important line in a play that the main actor didn't believe in very much. Only now did Nami and Akina truly take note of the fact that their hostess and her friend didn't seem very convinced of all the things they said either. "Without change, there's stagnation and then the inevitable death. Even if it's just a small bit of difference, it's still needed."

Nami blinked in surprise at their hostess, sensing the subtle change in the atmosphere around them. "A small bit?" Nami inquired. "Is that why there are gh-ghosts around? Like everything here, something's holding everything in Tokyo back? As if, time stopped or went slower here, but everyone, in their own way, is trying to move on from it but at the same time, fearing about letting go of the past and who they used to be? Changes on the outside don't mean anything without the changes on the inside to reflect it. Such physical changes just become shallow and meaningless without real backings."

"Even you have noticed?" The olive-skinned woman seemed more pleased at this than surprised.

"Everyone's dialect and speech patterns seem older than Kobe, and Kobe's been trying to keep to the older ways these last few decades to attract tourists," Nami explained as she patted an old box to check its security before sitting on it carefully. Akina shivered a bit again from her place on the floor, but it wasn't really because of the cold anymore. "When we got a room at the hotel it wasn't just the place that seemed out of the time we've grown up in, but the manager as well. Most of the guests you can immediately tell were not Tokyo residents a little too easily, even those of Japanese descent that lived near Tokyo. Just the airs around those natives here are strange, and not even you, Meiou Setsuna San – as urbane and traveled as you are – use even the most conventional of slang words that have popped up in the last fifty years." Nami closed her eyes in recollection. "And this place makes one want to reminisce... I've noticed." Nami smiled slowly. "It's as if all of Tokyo is filled... with a nostalgic joy and an equal sadness."

Their blonde hostess blinked in surprise, but it was Setsuna who spoke. "Mm, I never really would have described it that way, but those words fit very well with this city. Once, it was a metropolis of Japan, a very first in everything. But time and events took that away from Tokyo, along with many other things. Now, it is just a place that has stilled in time, one that lingers and clings to a near past, never really living beyond the memories of its own creations."

"However," Minako cut in, "there are still people who walk away from this place." She bowed her head down and touched the sleeve of her robe thoughtfully, a gesture not lost to Setsuna but meaningless to her other guests. "Others change the roles they play." Minako smiled sadly at this. "It is just difficult to decide which is harder though. But in the end, even a little change is necessary."

"Mm," Meiou Setsuna agreed as she studied the blonde for a moment longer.

"It sounds to me like you're just fooling yourselves." Akina crossed her arms over her chest with a determined look on her face. "Living like this isn't living at all. If it's all a lie, nobody will be happy in the end."

Minako looked angry now. "Who are you to judge?" the blonde demanded, "People aren't living day by day just for the sole reason to be happy."

"Aren't they?" Akina asked softly. "Isn't that what we all want? Even if it's selfish, even if it's hard, as long as we're living for something we truly desire with every cell of our body and every ounce of our being, it's not so bad, is it? Misery is there only when we give up hope or we live lives that we tell ourselves are the ones we want. But in our hearts, in everyone's hearts, we know it's just the excuses we give ourselves while living up to other people's expectations. In the end, everyone's sad and everyone suffers because no one wants to admit the truth."

Minako was silent and so was Setsuna. The silence was heavy, but at least everyone was thinking over the words Akina had spoken. "The truth hurts, though." Nami finally broke the silence. "Living the truth can be very painful. Sometimes, you dream of something impossible to have and you live each day to make it possible, hoping an opportunity would one day arise and fearing to leave because of that possibility – no matter how small. Because we are humans, we fear regret... But, in the end, it's not hard to realize that you really weren't suited for some of the things you really thought you wanted or needed. Sometimes, one needs to admit defeat and throw in the towel, try something fearsomely new."

"There'll still be doubt," Akina argued.

"There's always doubt, little sister." Nami smiled. "That is also a part of life. Sometimes, sadness and failures are needed. All people strive for happiness, but not every road we choose is the one that is meant for us. Sometimes, we need to switch the road we're on to truly find happiness, to try things we never knew existed and pick up opportunities that we would not have dreamt of taking before pushed to certain extremes."

Nami laced her fingers together and there was a glow about her that Akina never realized. It was very soft and not very visible, but Nami had an aura of peace and satisfaction on her, a silent, inner joy that Akina never before seen. It made Nami, perhaps the plainest in looks and mannerisms of all of the Kumada children, seem more beautiful than anyone Akina had ever met. Now, Akina could see how even the devilishly charismatic Hidekai Kiyoshi would be drawn to her older sister.

"Happiness is not what roles we play in life, or the road we're on, it depends on the person who walks such paths that they have chosen. Some people never find happiness because the person inside would not be able to hold onto happiness even if they were given it freely. Some people find happiness wherever they go because the well of happiness within them will never run dry. It is in each of us to obtain the happiness we desire, but most of the time it isn't what we envisioned that would bring us to such a state in our lives. That which would bring such happiness to us is hardly ever what we thought we would want but it always turns out to be what we truly need. Only when such a gift is accepted with open arms can such an emotion flow freely within us. Akina Chan, to be truthful to oneself is also to admit defeat sometimes. As human beings, we are not always right. In fact, you may discover that we are hardly ever right. We make mistakes in life. But it's alright, because if we're truthful to ourselves, we can very easily correct such mistakes."

Akina reluctantly nodded. At this moment, she wondered if her father giving up on Hino Rei and going to Mother was not so bad of a choice on his part. Maybe, all this time that she had alienated herself from her father because of her own suspicions were based on the false feelings of her own insecurities. Lately, Akina found herself reminiscing a lot. "A city of memories, huh?" Akina thought out loud. "If this city is living a memory," Akina pondered, suddenly looking up startled in realization, "whose memory is everyone living in?"

Both Minako and Setsuna turned their gazes sharply onto her. Nami though touched her bottom lip in thought, a habit that she had not used since she was a young child, "I wonder," Nami agreed in thought.

Their hostess and her friend shared a look, but the blonde was the first to break into a smile. "My, I can't believe we didn't think of it sooner!" Minako exclaimed with a giant grin.

Even Setsuna's smile seemed a bit more genuine than before. "All this time," the woman agreed.

Nami and Akina looked from one to the other in confusion. "Was it something I said?" Akina pointed to herself, slightly annoyed at having been suddenly left out of the loop.

"Oh!" Minako grasped Akina's shoulder happily. "Who'd have thought an annoying brat like you could really bring so much change to our situation!"

"H-hey!" Akina protested against the insult.

Laughing, their blonde hostess waved away Akina's reaction with another brilliant smile. For once, Akina realized that Minako hadn't really been smiling genuinely at them either, just like Setsuna, who had yet to stop smiling. Neither of the strange, older women had been smiling with too much emotion, not until this very moment. Akina realized that she wouldn't have known that if she hadn't saw the memories play out in front of them, but now she saw it very clearly. These women wore very similar masks, but the emotions inside weren't as clear or as true as what the masks portrayed. "Thank you," the blonde said, grasping Akina's cold hands in her own cool ones. "Thank you for everything."

Speechless, Akina could only nod dumbly in reply, not at all sure what this woman meant. Exchanging a look with Nami, the two silently decided that perhaps, it was time to leave Tokyo. Both women thought they'd had more than enough of an adventure to last them a lifetime. Surely, it would be much better to return to the known routines of home, without any more of this drama that seemed to have always been at the core of their father's old life.

How these Tokyo women lived it, Akina just didn't know.

_To be continued..._

* * *

- _The person that Aino Minako and Hino Rei were discussing, who left is Tsukino Usagi. The reason for her disappearance is not elaborated on, but in previous chapters it is hinted that a great battle or confrontation took place and everyone suffered for it. [This battle was after Galaxia.] sTsukino Usagi just happened to have not returned from that battle and disappeared for whatever reason. Because that had happened 41 years ago, the entire city of Tokyo has stood still since, as a testament of the powers that was once displayed that day, 41 years ago. Whatever had happened, the Senshi were never the same again and have disbanded. No one has attacked since and nothing "_seemed to change_" in Tokyo, time moving neither forwards or backwards. However, the event is not something everyone is aware of – think of D-Day in the anime, at the end of the first season – everything returned to normal right away after the fighting... no evidence to prove any major fighting went on. There were evidences though; for example: the ghosts._

**_-_**_ The airplane flying scene was brought on by the nostalgic music of "Leaving On a Jet Plane" by Mammas and Pappas (at least that's what it says on my mp3). It is **not** because Minako or the author has gone insane. Try listening to it and you'll see what I mean =)_

**-** _What Minako is so excited about is that because everyone's minds have been warped in a way so that no one can really "change" willingly, not one of the Senshi had been able to figure out the phenomenon, too close to it most likely, in all this time. They either tried to forget whatever had happened or tried to move on. Akina suggested the theory that they were living in someone's memories, that's why it is so hard for them to change. We can all guess who's memories Aino Minako and Meiou Setsuna are thinking everyone is living, right?_

**_-_**_ I thought Akina learned enough about her own misgivings; since up to now, everyone's been ganging up on her. So, I thought there were things Nami and she could teach the Senshi as well, since they are outsiders looking in. The nature of the two sisters also play off of each other well enough to bring about such a conversation, filling in the gaps between optimism and wisdom that have been missing in the lives of all the Senshi after Usagi's disappearance. (So, one point each for the Kumada girls!)_

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_****__**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ [Dabs away tears of gratitude]


	6. A Conversation With a Ghost

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a __Tokyo__ shrine. From there on out, a trip to __Tokyo__ for the family from __Kobe__ will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"If we die... where do we go?_

_Who do we become? Do we go to _

_sleep__? Or is the endless _

_waltz__ with strangers a never _

_ending__ cycle of a dream, but _

_we no longer are the deamers..."_

**Chapter 6**

**_A Conversation With a Ghost_**__

With grumbling stomachs, the four had returned to find that Grandfather was amusing himself elsewhere and was no longer guarding the doorway. Relieved, they ended up eating a cold dinner, much to the displeasure of both Aino Minako and Kumada Akina. Still, the most puzzling part was when Hiroshi and Iku told them of the very interesting talk they had with Grandfather, to which, Minako exclaimed, "He talks?" Obviously, their blonde hostess wasn't able to get over the lecherous hurdle between the ghost and herself to really get a conversation going. Nami though, could not help but shudder, stating that the ghost was just as creepy as she thought ghosts would be, but perhaps, she did not think that the word "strange" really extended to the ghost being a hentai as well until now.

"I was surprised myself," Iku said as she poured everyone some more tea, herself included. "I mean, first he was groping you girls," she said, causing every "girl" but Setsuna to grumble in annoyance, though Setsuna's face did twitch slightly at the mention of the groping. "That certainly didn't help his image much when he laughingly demonstrated what else he could do at the doorway." That provoked a few more grumbles. "However, the moment you girls were gone, he just drifted a bit aimlessly again. He was calling, "Granddaughter, granddaughter—" over and over again. Only this time, he really seemed like he was looking for her."

"Yes," Hiroshi agreed after he sipped his tea. "The old man really seemed like the moaning ghost in the movies after you guys left."

"So, I decided to ask him who he was really looking for and why," Iku explained. "To my surprise, he actually came over and sat down like he was alive still. And then, he answered us the way a normal person would."

"Rei Chan's Grandfather and the word normal are usually not synonymous with each other," Minako muttered darkly.

Laughing, Iku waved away the comment with a grin. "I must agree with that, but he really was a gentleman, surprisingly." Iku sighed. "If I were younger…" she trailed off with a dreamy look.

"Ew," Akina shuddered. "Mother, he's a ghost for crying out loud! And he's lecherous."

Iku grinned. "Yes, dear. It was very, very bad of me!"

"So what did you talk about?" Nami asked in curiosity.

"A lot of things," Iku answered, clapping her hands together happily. "I learned a lot about my past rival." Minako and Setsuna both looked surprised, though the former wore a bit more of an exasperated expression. "She really was an admirable woman, as I am sure her daughter is today." Iku looked very joyful though for saying such a thing. "Thank goodness I didn't know anything about her when I was younger."

"Why is that, Mother?" Akina and Hiroshi both asked at the same time.

"Well…" Iku put a hand to her cheek as a depressed expression came over her face. "If I knew then what I know now, I would have plain given up on your father very quickly." She sighed. "It would not have been much of a competition if she really did love him. I would have given up right then and there! Rei San was too much to compete against, if you know what I mean."

Akina near fell over the table. "W-What the hell are you talking about?" Akina demanded wrathfully.

"I told her Rei Chan was amazing," Minako sighed in defeat, "but I guess none of it got through that thick skull of hers, hm?"

"Hey!" Akina pounded the table in a threatening manner.

"Watch it," Minako retorted back slyly. "This table is more than you can afford to replace in a life-time," the blonde huffed snobbishly, "so watch what you damage, brat!"

"Oh!" Iku signaled for Hiroshi to restrain Akina before she could do more harm to herself or anybody else for that matter. "Watch your manners, Akina Chan," Iku admonished her second daughter sternly. "Anyway," Iku stated, ignoring any other protests from her second daughter's lips, "Hino Rei San was indeed an amazing woman, but she sure did have quite a few flaws in her personality as well. Even Grandfather, ghost that he is, shudders at the mention of her wrath. So I gathered that the rumor of her temper must have been quite true."

Minako grinned evilly at this and cracked her knuckles, thinking of all kinds of punishment for the old ghost in the coming future. She really needed pay him back for all the groping he had inflicted on her, just to teach him a lesson. _Nobody groped Sailor Senshi Venus and got away with it without her permission!_ "Mm." Setsuna set down her cup thoughtfully, interrupting Aino Minako's scheming thoughts of revenge. "What _was_ your conversation with this old ghost about? What did he tell you? You couldn't have talked just about his granddaughter all this time."

Iku looked puzzled at her son who returned her glance. "It's all very strange," the older woman nodded with perplexity in her gaze. "It started out normally enough. He was saying how great Hino Rei San was and how much he wished he could find her, but then, it all got quite strange in the end, now that I think on it a bit..."

**- - - - -**

"Matsuko Masakazu San," Kumada Iku called out from the inner room. "Are you looking for your granddaughter, Hino Rei San?" she asked, curious to see if the ghost would respond.

"Granddaughter?" Matsuko Masakazu's ghost turned his head towards them, much to the surprise of Hiroshi and Iku both. "You know her?" the ghost asked, coming over swiftly and all of a sudden appearing in a kneeling position right next to Hiroshi. Poor Hiroshi jumped out of his seat in surprise and looked ready to jump out of his skin at the scare as well. But the ghost didn't seem to take notice of the other's predicaments.

"What's wrong with you, boy?" Masakazu asked instead, casting a glance at Hiroshi who shuddered but straightened considerably under the old ghost's scrutinizing gaze. "You look like you've seen a ghost!" At this the not so old looking ghost laughed uproariously at his own words before he patted the seat next to him. "You got nothing to be afraid of, boy," Masakazu assured Hiroshi, his face turning sly. "That is unless you wish to court my Rei Chan!" Hiroshi quickly shook his head, causing Masakazu to sigh in relief. "Phew," the ghost beamed, "one less person to scare around here, then. You know, this ghost business is really hard?" At this, the old man began to rotate his shoulder as if his phantom body could feel strain.

"Wh-why are you searching for your granddaughter, Grandfather San?" Hiroshi asked timidly.

"Grandfather San?" The blonde ghost looked surprised. "Oh, call me Masakazu San, please. I hope I don't look like an old man anymore. Being a ghost has its advantages, you know? But it's hard to keep up appearances when you can't really see your own reflection," the ghost remarked. "Still, I hope I got ride of all my wrinkles." Masakazu smoothed his face as if he was smoothing a piece of clothing, searching for an imaginary wrinkle.

"You look very handsome and young," Iku commented with a happy smile.

"M-Mother!" Hiroshi hissed but ended up looking more confused and scandalized than admonishing.

However, Masakazu looked relieved, beaming happily at the compliment once he stopped smoothing his face in the strange manner he was going about it. "Good, good!" The ghost grinned. "It's always good to get a second opinion from the opposite sex, though young girls do seem really frightened by my dashing good looks. Maybe they just don't want to give themselves away, those sly females!" Masakazu began to laugh uproariously again, much to the utter exasperation of his table companions. However, Hiroshi soon discovered that he was the only exasperated table companion when it came to this ghost. His mother really didn't seem to mind the old ghost's cluelessness and found what Matsuko Masakazu said equally funny, though, perhaps for a completely different reason. Still, she giggled along like a young girl at Masakazu's sometimes lecherous jokes and comments as they finished dinner. It was very startling and quite disturbing in Hiroshi's opinion.

Not that there was much he could do though. "So you know you're a ghost?" Iku asked surprised.

"Well," Matsuko Masakazu said, looking quite insulted by the question, "after one can walk through walls and anything else for that matter, and there is the matter of seeing your dead body – very disenchanting, might I add – it's quite obvious, you know? I'm dead. The end. Only, there's no heaven and no hell, no redemption and no judgment," the old ghost sighed, "and no second chances." The room seemed to darken as the candles flickered slightly. "I thought at first that if I was a ghost then perhaps my wife was standing by my side all along. I searched high and low for my Sakura Chan, but alas, her spirit has left this place and this old, old man." He petted his chest a bit, though his words created quite a strange effect since his appearances gave no indication of him being an old man. "But I'm young and beautiful now!" he added cheerfully, shaking off his earlier gloom and the candles brightened in response.

It was very surprising that the very atmosphere of the room responded to the up and down feelings of the resident ghost. "Do all ghosts know their dead?" Hiroshi asked curiously, remembering the one they passed on the street. Well, that particular ghost more or less ran them over, but that was not something Hiroshi wanted to elaborate on.

"Some know," Grandfather nodded. "I would guess some don't, or don't want to face the fact that they are dead now. It's very hard to not notice that your body is quite transparent if you put your mind to it, but there are always those who are unwilling to accept the truth. I guess, there's really not that much difference between the dead and the living in the end."

"Can you… leave this place?" Iku inquired hesitantly once more after some silence.

"Yes," the old man nodded, "but something doesn't want me to go. Don't you feel it, Missy? That pull of gravity upon your body that doesn't want you to leave Earth also exists in this shrine, the Hikawa Jinja, and all throughout Tokyo." Iku looked confused and shook her head. "Well, I guess it isn't gravity per se, but it's like gravity," the old ghost elaborated. "Something in this place and every place in Tokyo wants and desires for everything to remain the same. This desire is so strong that the city, and even the dead, stands still. Each of us can move on, but to break the chains that hold us down is very difficult indeed."

"I'm not really a resident of Tokyo," Iku explained.

"You're returning though," Masakazu replied easily.

Iku blinked surprised. "H-how do you know?" she asked shakily.

"I know that, as well as I know that the boy here has never been here before. I also know that some of the girls that jumped out today – your daughters, right?" Iku nodded in response. "Well, one of them is in the same situation as this boy and the other has been here once before, but after the incident."

"After the incident?" Iku asked but Masakazu only smiled mysteriously at this. "That's not possible. Neither Nami Chan nor Akina Chan's been here before, not to my knowledge anyway."

"The girl with the breast like this…" Masakazu made a gripping motion with his hands to demonstrate. "And a bottom like this." He turned his hands and made another gripping motion. "She's been here before, I'm sure of it!" Iku blushed to the tips of her hair and Hiroshi was outraged.

"You pervert! Don't talk about my sister like that!" Hiroshi tried to smack the ghost but his hand only went through the other's head.

"O-oh," Matsuko Masakazu exclaimed as if pained, "that's not very nice! How would you like it if someone went through your head like that?" To which the old ghost demonstrated and Hiroshi nearly fainted from the sensation of an overwhelming brain freeze. Hiroshi ended up twitching on the floor instead while Masakazu looked very sheepish at the other's reaction. "Oops," the old ghost sighed, "I guess I overdid it a little."

Iku looked worriedly over her son as she knelt by Hiroshi's side and felt his cool forehead. But the old ghost waved her off, assuring her that Hiroshi would be fine. "He'll recover. I've seen it happen a million times before in the streets to tourists!" Masakazu nodded with what he hoped was a reassuring grin. "Some of them even had really bad heart problems too, and they didn't die at all!"

"I'll never forgive you if he gets brain damage from this," Iku bluntly told the ghost with a wry look in Masakazu's direction.

"Hey, hey," Masakazu protested, "don't give me such a fierce and threatening look. He won't get brain damage, okay?" The old ghost muttered something else under his breath but Iku let it slip. "Anyway," Masakazu said, tapping the wooden ground beneath him, "this place is very good at keeping its residents safe. My granddaughter made sure of it before she left."

"Eh?" Iku sat back on her heels. "You know she's not around?"

"Well," Masakazu said, smiling sheepishly, "why else would I be going around calling for her? If I did it when she was here, she'd really purify my poor, ghostly behind." The old ghost sighed fondly at the memories.

Iku was exceptionally surprised by this turn of events. "So, why do you call for her?"

"Why, if Minako Chan gets annoyed with me enough, maybe she'll be able to convince Rei Chan to come back!" Masakazu answered cheerfully.

"Is that why you keep groping helpless girls too?" Hiroshi asked from the floor unhappily. "_That's_ your ultimate plan?" Hiroshi sounded more than a little bit irked and not really believing a word the ghost was saying.

"Partially," Matsuko Masakazu answered airily. "Young girls really feel lovely though, even under these ghostly hands!" the old ghost declared with dreamy determination.

"Don't say it like it isn't weird, you old man!" Hiroshi growled at the ghost.

"Don't take for granted such chances of youth by being a prude!" Masakazu argued back. The two growled at each other threateningly.

Iku smiled. Masakazu sure turned out to be quite an energetic ghost indeed. "Why don't you look for Hino Rei San then? You can leave, after all."

"As I said, the force of this place makes me very uncertain about leaving. A lot of times I want to go float off and look for Rei Chan, but I get confused, sometimes I forget, sometimes I get filled with fear..." Masakazu looked very perplexed at this. "Since the incident forty-one years ago, everything's been very strange."

"You even know the date?" Hiroshi asked, shocked.

"Idiot boy," Masakazu sighed and pointed towards the wall. "There's a calendar there, you know? Who do you think I am? It's not like I was born yesterday and I, for one, certainly didn't die without a brain!"

Hiroshi laughed nervously. "Sorry, just not something they teach us about ghosts in the movies."

"Youngsters these days," Masakazu muttered.

"Can you really feel?" Hiroshi asked curiously.

"What do you feel when I touch you?" Masakazu asked with a sly expression on his face.

Hiroshi shuddered. "Icy cold," he answered honestly.

"Well, the girls and even you," Masakazu said, though he didn't say Hiroshi's part quite so enthusiastically, "feel very warm and lively to me. So I guess, you can say a ghost is drawn to the living as the living is repulsed by the dead." Masakazu looked very sad as he said the last of his words though.

"I don't think your granddaughter left because of that," Iku told him reassuringly. "The Hino Rei San that my husband told me about, who has friends that believe in her as much as Aino Minako San and perhaps even Meiou Setsuna San, seems like someone who is very responsible, fair, and kind. She wouldn't leave because of fear of you, Masakazu San."

Masakazu sighed dreamily. "To hear the voice of a woman uttering my name! Ah, the beauty of such things should never be taken for granted!"

"P-pervert! Don't think like that about my mother!" Hiroshi commanded. But the ghost only laughed at him.

"That's why," Iku suddenly spoke up, "I think you should go find her if you can, Masakazu San."

Masakazu shook his head. "You know a lot for such a young thing," he said, causing Iku to blush at the compliment. "But, you do not feel this pull that all ghosts in Tokyo feel. You do not understand the flow as I and many others of the dead community understand. It is not time yet for this old soul to leave this old place. There are memories that must be maintained till the time comes for the memories to be forgotten and we, from ghosts to people, are wakened from our years of sleep."

"When will that be?" Hiroshi inquired.

Masakazu smiled mysteriously. "A far off time from now," the old ghost answered vaguely. "It will be beyond your lifetime, boy, further than the eye can see!"

"Will you be here till then?" Iku asked.

"As long as the flow that brought me here leads to this shrine, gathering time and something I do not understand… So long as this be true, I shall remain here," Masakazu answered truthfully. "But, I had hoped that Rei Chan would return to me before my dream is over. That is my dream within this dream. Even in death, even ghosts, even we try to make a ripple or two with our temporary bodies that can only be seen by the living but not acknowledged by anything else. How sad." The candles began to dim. "How very sad..."

And then, the voice trailed off and the lights died. "Mother?" Hiroshi called out worriedly from the dark.

"I'm right here, Hiroshi Chan."

"Let's go home, Mother." Hiroshi shuddered in the dark that suddenly seemed very deep. Even the light from the kitchen couldn't penetrate through to this darkness. For once, in a very, very long time, Hiroshi found himself afraid of the dark as if he were a child again.

This place really was too much of a place of memories. Even they, strangers as they were to the city, were drawn in with their own memories of emotions and actions, into this place. The sooner they got away from this place, the better. Hiroshi felt all of a sudden very restless, as if his legs were itching to move and walk and run.

"Yes," Iku agreed in the dark. "Let's go home."

**- - - - -**

Evening had deepened around them when the four of them left the shrine behind with Aino Minako waving them off and Meiou Setsuna coolly standing next to the blonde. The other woman's ear was pressed to the latest gadget line of phones. Apparently there had been a revival of old time cell phones, though mostly just the shape of the objects and not really the technology behind it. In the end, even Tokyo must change a little bit at a time, no matter whose memories the people inside the city lived within. However, Akina turned back at the last minute to give one last happy wave at her new found friends. She was surprised to see that there were genuine smiles on both women's faces as she looked up from the bottom of the hundred steps; so far away these two women suddenly seemed, as if the meeting was but a lifetime ago. Still, in the city of memories, Akina found her own answers.

"They're really amazing women," Akina murmured as they got into the taxi that they called over.

Surprised, but pleased, Iku nodded her head in agreement. Kumada Iku was satisfied because after dinner, Minako and she had gone over the details of Kumada Yuuichiro's request. A lot of decisions were already made, but both women thought it wise to leave the final placing up to Hino Rei once the woman had returned from her tour. Having successfully completed what she had set out to do, Iku felt a weight lifting from her shoulders. "There are still a lot of things we don't know about this place," Iku said, smiling as they piled up into the car with the driver, "but I'm glad of it. I think it's good what we learned from them, what they were willing to share with us. Sometimes, the more painful memories are best left buried..."

When they got back to the hotel, they separated once more with Iku going to her own room as well as Hiroshi to his, and Nami and Akina going to the room they chose to share. "Hey, Older Sister," Akina said, gripping Nami's arm with both her own. Nami looked over to Akina questioningly. "I'm also very glad," Akina said shyly, "that we came on this trip."

Smiling, Nami nodded. "I can see why Kiyoshi Kun likes this place as well."

"Ah!" Akina blinked at her sister. "You called him Kiyoshi Kun instead of Kiyoshi San, Older Sister!"

"Oh?" Nami blushed but the smile did not leave her face. "Did I really?"

Happily, Akina nodded. "Yeah, and I guess," Akina sighed to herself a little, "I can understand why Father must have loved Hino Rei San and this city very much." Nami glanced over at Akina with a rueful look. "When she smiled in that memory film we saw, even thought it must have been through Aino Minako San's eyes... But I felt it too, the pull she had. Aino Minako San has it too, and so does Meiou Setsuna San. All those women have it." Akina grinned. "I remembered then, Father once smiling at Mother with that same expression. I guess, after awhile I never really considered too deeply how much he cared about us." Akina looked very sad at this. "I was always just so worried about how he felt for other women, and the people outside of our house. I guess I wasn't into sharing any of the affections I had from Father, not even when it was Mother." Akina was very sheepish and a little saddened by the realizations of her own admissions. "That sounded strange, didn't it?" Akina suddenly asked with a nervous smile. Nami nodded with a happy smile of her own, much to the total chagrin of her younger sister. "Nami Chan, you're not supposed to agree so easily!"

"Oh? I didn't realize," Nami answered apologetically.

"Tomorrow," Akina said, grinning at Nami from across their hotel room, after both sisters were ready for bed, "let's really enjoy the last day in Tokyo with some real shopping!" Eagerly agreeing, the lights went off and both sisters went to sleep, dreaming of discounts, sales, and all the wonderful things they'd be bringing back home to Kobe.

_To be continued_...

* * *

**_Hentai_** -- _means lecherous, pervert, etc. But in __Japan__, bad things tend to also be considered hen -- "strange" -- so you'll often hear in anime the "hen" part of hentai (where tai may mean "body, party, company". It can also mean "to wish to do something") during a conversation (to be a hentai also means strange in a way). I'm not sure exactly all the ways it can be used since I've not studied Japanese, but strange can be interpreted to equate to bad in a conformist type of society like Japan, so Nami was saying that ghosts are "strange" -- meaning creepy and scary and weird/unnatural – but it can also extend to Matsuko Masakazu ghost being a pervert. Aye, it's hard to translate it into English. I hope you understand what I meant..._

**-** _Why are they not more disturbed by all the events of ghosts and strange hostesses? I was reading over this and took note of the fact that no one's taken to screaming into the hills. Well, there is that "dead husband's final wish" thing to fulfill. And living people are living normally... I'm asking you to stretch your imagination here a little. I mean, it's not like the Kumada family wants to stay, but something is pulling them to anyway. Call it destiny, call it fate, call it the writer's desperate attempt to make this plot work... Whatever you want to call it, at least the Kumadas do recognize the bizarre world they are in and can't wait to get out. I'm really putting my money's worth on their determination to see Yuuichiro's ashes properly taken care off... that and their curiosity for the absent owner, Hino Rei._

- _The reason why the lies about Hino Rei (be her stuck in a 22 year old body or she's the daughter of another Hino Rei) aren't consistent is because most of the people Aino Minako and all the rest of the Senshi know on a personal basis are dead, or ghosts, so I don't think they've thought of a suitable lie for why Rei is so darn young. I mean, she's a pop star right now, so Minako probably thought her friend's story was taken care of. I doubt Minako thinks anyone would really believe that the Hino Rei from over 41 years ago is the same as the one now, who uses the stage name Mars Reiko. I didn't want there to be consistency in what Aino Minako was saying; the lack of consistency is intended, if you are wondering why the stories don't always match up -- jumping from Hino Rei being a mother to a daughter and back again. I don't want it to look like Aino Minako was ready for the questions the Kumadas may have for her; this lack of factual balance is to show how unprepared Minako is for the situation. And no, it's not just because she's an airhead. I mean, I don't think a lot of people came up to her and went, "My husband – your best friend's old love interest – is dead and have a request to be buried here." Yes, it's an excuse, but I'm sticking to my story! p_

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ [Dabs away tears of gratitude]


	7. Silent Tears

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"__Just because you don't see _

_the__ pain, doesn't mean it isn't there. _

_And just because you don't see the hope, _

_doesn't mean it's missing too.__"___

**Chapter 7**

**_Silent Tears_**__

The sky was very blue the next day. Even the winter chill stood at bay a bit under the bright sun. Still, Kumada Akina woke up in a grump. Akina's morning moodiness settled over her like a storm cloud, exasperated the more by the bright, sunny day and her older sister's cheer. Kumada Nami could not quite say what set her sister off, but something did between night and early morning. Akina had always been unpredictable and Nami bore it with a stoicism that had always made her the mediator between the people that Akina insulted when Nami's younger sister was in such a foul mood.

"What's the matter with her?" Hiroshi asked when they met up in the lobby after breakfast. Even though Hiroshi said it with less of the mocking tone than what he usually used with Akina, it still provoked Akina's nasty temper and nastier sense of vengeance. Then again, this morning, Akina really didn't need much of a provocation to get her going.

"Hiroshi Chan..." Akina leaned over with a sly look over her face as she sugar coated her words. When Hiroshi gave her a questioning glance that was missing its usual precaution, Akina struck. "You're fly's open." Frozen, Hiroshi went to cover his crotch. "Just kidding," Akina said at the last minute. A bit more loudly, she spoke out into the lobby. "Brother, don't touch yourself in public!"

"Akina Chan!" Nami admonished since their mother was sleeping in again, much to their eldest sister's relief. "What's wrong with you?" _Mother would die of a heart attack if she ever heard about Akina's actions when she's not around_, Nami thought to herself. Hiroshi was not the only one blushing as Nami's own cheeks were flushed, for she also shared Hiroshi's sentiments, but she was far angrier at Akina's loose tongue.

"PMS?" Hiroshi suggested without any humor in his voice or expression. It didn't help much though since his face was still bright red with embarrassment as people in the surrounding area shot him weird looks and began to whisper behind their hands while looking at him.

Akina huffed as if she was in a worse position than him and crossed her arms. "I don't know what you're talking about," Akina said, flinging her arms out and stretching, nearly smacking Hiroshi in the face with her actions. "I'm going shopping. Tokyo's the worst!" Ignoring the glares people shot her, she strode passed reception desk and tossed the key at the weary hotel receptionist. "I'll be back later," Akina said over her shoulder with quite the attitude.

"I'm really sorry about my younger sister's actions," Nami apologized to the poor man after her sister's departure out the doors.

"She's not been taking her medicine today," Hiroshi added darkly. The hotel worker could do nothing but smile forcefully at them and wish them a good journey for the day, wherever it was they were going.

"Hiroshi Chan!" Nami admonished as they were leaving the hotel themselves to follow after their wayward sister. "Don't be so mean. You are, once again, gaining a bad influence from Akina Chan again. Speaking wrongly about other people, especially family members, is a sign of bad breeding. Having one family member who has no account for manners is bad enough, we really don't need two."

"H-hey!" Hiroshi protested. "After what she did?"

"Exactly why you shouldn't let her provoke you," Nami reasoned coolly.

"If it were you, you wouldn't take it lying down," Hiroshi muttered.

Nami shot him a look but joined their muttering and impatient sister who actually stood and waited for them next to a taxi. "Would you two hurry up?" Akina demanded as she pounded the hood of the car, much to the displeasure of the driver inside.

"Hey, watch it, kid! This taxi is used for driving, not an outlet for your bad moods!" The taxi driver warned Akina.

"Oh, yeah? See if I pay you a tip now!" Akina threatened, her foot in the passenger side already.

"See if I drive you!" the driver answered by moving the car forward a little with an equal amount of threat, but the action nearly made Akina fall over since she didn't expect anyone to talk back, much less act back.

"Hey! That's very dangerous!" Nami suddenly joined in, admonishing the driver and Akina both. "We're really sorry for our sister's rude behavior, but there's no need for such acts that may lead to an accident."

The driver sighed guiltily. "Keh, I'll drive you as long as the brat over there stays silent."

"Who are you calling a brat?" Akina demanded angrily but Hiroshi covered her mouth, effectively muffling her voice.

"Yes, sir," Hiroshi said, grinning at the driver. "I know exactly how you feel." The two men shared a knowing look over Akina's head, much to her annoyance.

The drive was tense, Akina having scooted over as far as she possibly could to get away from both her brother and the driver. The two men chattered amiably throughout the ride up front while Nami watched the scenery, occasionally glancing over at her younger sister with a weary eye. Akina nearly jumped out of the car after they arrived downtown next to a prominent shopping mall. Without even muttering a "thanks" she was off, leaving Nami to apologize after her and Hiroshi to do the thanking and tipping. "What a handful," Hiroshi sighed with exasperation as the two siblings walked onto the sidewalk.

Nami giggled a bit behind her hand. "You get used to it. After awhile, you just realize that it's part of Akina Chan's personality. Even though it's rough and hard to bare, she's always honest with what she feels and her interactions with other people are equally honest. Sometimes, I really envy her." Nami sighed, but her smile remained gentle.

Hiroshi smirked. "Don't belittle yourself like that, Older Sister," he said, setting a hand on Nami's shoulder and gave her a cheerful grin. "Older Sister has always watched over us since we've been small, and whatever strength we learned in life, it was with the guiding hand of Older Sister, and Mother and Father. Akina Chan and I are really lucky to have such an understanding sister who is so patient with both of us."

A cold wind blew through the city and Nami tugged at her scarf. "Tokyo sure is beautiful today," Nami commented.

"Very," Hiroshi agreed as he looked over the old, tall buildings with a sense of awe on his face.

"Come on, you slow pokes!" Akina called over her shoulder, her expression brighter as she stuck her head out of the shopping center. "All that stuff that's just waiting for us to buy it… Can't you feel it! Come on, come on!"

Nami smiled contentedly at her younger sister's antics. "Can you truly imagine her any other way?" she asked Hiroshi playfully.

"I guess, in a way," Hiroshi sighed. "At least she waits for us," he grinned. "My fast paced living older sister, Akina."

A dark-haired woman caught a glimpse of them through the crowd, her smile as mysterious as the expression in her dark eyes.

- - - - -

"Hey, hey!" a girl leaned over the counter to get the attention of her working friend. "Did you hear? That singer from Fire, Mars Reiko San, is apparently making an appearance today at--"

"Of course I know," her friend answered, looking equally excited. "My boyfriend can't stop talking about it. If she wasn't such a great singer and so out of his league, I'd be jealous." The two laughed.

"Yeah, wouldn't it be great to be famous?" The girl sighed dreamily.

"_Rich_ and famous," her friend added knowingly. "Then I wouldn't have to keep such a slave-driving job," she complained. "Oh, a customer!" Shooing the girl aside, her friend turned to the male patron. "How's it going?"

Kumada Hiroshi smiled charmingly, making the girl with the boyfriend blush. "I was wondering, but did you just say that Mars Reiko San's making an appearance?" he inquired as he set down the items he selected to purchase.

"Are you a fan?" the sales girl asked as she looked him up and down while not really paying attention to the items she was scanning through.

"Yes." Hiroshi grinned as he handed her the cash and she handed back three of Fire's latest CDs in a Christmas gift bag. "My sister, my girlfriend, and myself," Hiroshi explained with a grin as he pointed to the things he bought.

"At the rate Fire's going, their latest will be a number one single again!" the girl behind the counter said, smiling happily in reply, "But it's so great to see that they're such a steady source of great music. Mars Reiko San sure is a great lead singer, and so mysterious too! I think she surprised a lot of people on how long she stayed as a number one selling artist as well as being so consistent with her music's caliber. I heard that a lot of people really didn't think she'd make it since she's so young, you know? And she writes all her music too. It's truly amazing!"

"Music major?" he asked the girl behind the counter. That or the sales girl was a very avid fan.

She eagerly nodded to the first with a wide grin. "Have a nice day and enjoy the CDs, Mister!"

He nodded and gave a little wave as he exited the store. "Man," Hiroshi thought to himself, "what a coincidence. I wonder if the others would like to meet Mars Reiko San again. Maybe Akina Chan would apologize--"

"Hey!" Akina waved a fist at a passer-by when Hiroshi caught sight of her. "Who do you think you're looking at, you Hentai?" she demanded. Akina's hand was on her hip as she stood in a confrontational manner against a poor bystander.

"Or not," Hiroshi sighed in defeat.

"Who's that weird girl?" he overheard one passing high-school girl whisper to another. "She's so strange, calling attention to herself like that."

"She just probably likes the attention, if you know what I mean," one of the girl's friends replied snidely.

"Dressed like that, she really thinks people won't look at her?" another added.

Hiroshi nearly sighed out loud again in embarrassment. "Tokyo girls sure are cruel," he thought ruefully to himself. In the crowded arena, he saw a dark-haired girl wearing a red baseball cap approach his sister. Silver flashed on the girl's hip as she stood next to Akina, red lips moving, but Hiroshi was too far away to make out what she was saying. "Strange," he raised a brow at the startled expression on Akina's face. "I wonder who that is..."

- - - - -

"It's sad, isn't it? Being stuck here, not really able to move forward, but unable to go back." A soft voice reached Akina's ear and she turned abruptly to see the side profile of a girl– no, a young woman by her voice and speech pattern. The stranger's profile was half covered by the red baseball cap on the other's head while the woman leaned casually against the rail that lined the second floor ledge.

"Who--?" Akina began.

"Shh…" The young woman put a finger to her lips. "Just listen," the stranger instructed. "Can you hear her crying?"

"Crying?" Akina was about to speak but the young woman silenced her again. The stranger put a finger to Akina's lips, the woman's body language speaking of a determination that Akina was surprised by. The noise of the crowd seems to increase suddenly, roaring in Akina's ears.

"Hey, mommy, can I have--"

"Yo babe--"

"--what the?"

"Hello?"

"--Excuse me, please."

"Yes, I'd like some mochi with that--"

"We don't really sell that here--"

"Try a sample, try a sample--!"

_How am I supposed to hear anyone in this?_ Akina thought incredulously. And then the stranger turned her head and Akina saw the deepest, blackest eyes she'd ever encountered in her life. And in that blackness swam a purple light, like the velvet purple of the sky when the sun is setting in the evening, or the sad purple of violets in a rain storm. A silence fell in that space between her, the woman before her, and all the people passing them by, and then a voice came in that silence, a very soft noise vibrating over the heads of and voices of everyone.

Someone was... _crying_.

"Akina Chan, what are you doing?" The spell was broken. Akina found the eyes no longer looking at her and the connection ended there. Angered, she turned to see her smiling but confused brother.

"What the hell was that?" Akina demanded angrily. She put an uncertain hand on her head, not really hearing her brother's heated response. "That woman..." She turned her head and found the stranger standing next to her was gone.

"Who was that you were talking to?" Hiroshi asked.

Akina shook her head. "She asked me if I could hear someone crying."

"Crying?" Hiroshi looked around perplexed.

"I never knew there were such eyes except..." Akina felt her head again, trying to remember in her foggy brain where she had seen eyes like that before. Akina was surprised though when she couldn't remember what the woman really looked like or what the other's eyes looked like either; there was just a linger of emotions from the encounter left to be felt as the only evidence. Akina was not quite sure if she had hallucinated the entire encounter, and shook off the feeling of deja vu.

"Hm." Hiroshi looked worriedly down at his older sister. "Well, you'd be surprised to know that Mars Reiko San's back in town."

_"I will be seeing you in the future."_ Mars Reiko's voice echoed in Akina's memories but Akina had a hard time remembering what the striking woman looked like. It was disturbing, but all Akina could remember was the sense that the woman she met months ago was a very beautiful woman who was hard to forget, and who Akina was finding hard to remember. Something was wrong, but Akina couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

Akina stepped towards her brother uncertainly. "Mars Reiko... San?" she asked, her eyes suddenly very subdued, lacking her earlier rage.

Hiroshi was really worried when he saw the dazed expression on his sister's face, but his eyes caught the sight of something falling out of his sister's pocket. "Hm?" He reached down and retrieved the objects. "Eh?" He exclaimed, surprised. "These are VIP tickets to Fire's concert tonight!" Akina looked equally surprised at the discovery, "I didn't know you got them, Akina Chan! And there are four of them, perfect for the whole family!" Akina touched her side pocket. "Wow, and here I thought you were the most insensitive--"

"I- I didn't get them." Akina said softly, but Hiroshi didn't hear.

"Hey, Nami!" Hiroshi hailed their eldest sister over as she saw them through the crowd at their appointed meeting place. "You'll never guess our luck--"

"I didn't get them," Akina began. Her hand touched a piece of paper in her pocket.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Hiroshi glanced over his shoulder at her.

Akina opened the paper timidly and saw graceful writing. _I'll be seeing you tonight at the concert, girl who can hear those silent tears,_ it read. There was no signature. Akina flipped over the sheet and found no other evidence of the stranger who stood next to her. "Nothing," she answered her brother belatedly. "I didn't say anything." She elaborated without glancing at the quizzical looks her siblings shot her. "It's nothing at all." She crumbled the note and stuffed it back into her jacket pocket. Akina closed her eyes again, but this time, there was only the roar of the crowd.

Those eyes, Akina thought to herself. They left with her the same impression as those of the ageless eyes of Meiou Setsuna, and the mysterious gaze of Aino Minako. Who was that woman who stood by her side? That presence, it seemed strangely familiar. It was a presence that dominated all others when the woman was present, and lingered long after she was gone. Akina rubbed her hair into a mess in her utter frustration over the unsolved mystery. "Arg!" Akina growled. "Who the hell was that woman?"

Nami and Hiroshi shared a look, uncertain if their sibling had really lost her mind after all. "Perhaps, this trip wasn't such a good idea after all," Nami sighed as she looked down at the presents she bought for herself and Kiyoshi, as well as for the rest of her family members for the coming New Years. "Still, isn't Mars Reiko San the daughter of Hino Rei San?" Nami thought back to their conversation with Aino Minako and Meiou Setsuna. "It would be really interesting to meet that woman." Akina had walked ahead of them by that time and did not hear the end of Nami's latter inquiries. However, Nami had forgotten her curiosity as the eldest stared after her younger sibling. Akina was not empty handed as she stormed in front of Hiroshi and Nami both, but Nami had never seen her younger sister carry so little baggage when the other went to a mall, _any_ mall.

The day just seems to be getting stranger by the hour.

- - - - -

The music was pounding, setting the rhythm of everyone's heart to the beating drums and air guitar. "Wow!" Hiroshi scouted the place out and looked exceptionally impressed. The big guard at the door took one look at their tickets and hitched his thumb towards the door behind him.

"Three doors down," he told them gruffly.

"We're a bit late," Nami commented as she checked her watch.

Akina had been unusually silent the rest of their shopping trip. Distracted, the usually fashion conscious Akina bought three of the most mismatched bathing suits Nami ever saw. The eldest sighed to herself. When Akina woke up from her daze, her sister was going to have a heart attack when she saw the clothes she had picked. Iku had noticed her second daughter's distress as well, but wisely refrained from asking when her other children shook their heads in equal confusion when she gave them a questioning look. From past experiences, it was best to just let Akina be until she was ready to get out of her funk.

"Ya ho!" A cheerful voice rang over to them and all four turned to see Aino Minako dressed in silk and leather, bounding up to them in the strangest and coolest outfit they'd ever seen. It was a total change from the miko robes they were so used to seeing her in. Behind her, Meiou Setsuna followed in a more elegant garb while three other women, each beautiful in their own way, also appeared. "What a surprise to see you here!" Minako exclaimed, though the others didn't seem to be surprised at all at their appearance.

They walked down the hallway, while the blonde introduced each of the women. "Over there's Kino Makoto," Minako said, pointing to the tall brunette who was walking surprisingly smoothly even with steel crutches attached to each of the woman's arms. Kino Makoto nodded her head politely at them with an easy smile on her lips. "And next to her is Mizuno Ami. She's visiting all the way from _Germany_!" A friendly looking woman with deep sea eyes and the quintessential shy airs of a Japanese, smiled kindly at the Kumada family in greeting, though Minako's introduction sounded a bit tense at that moment. "And over here's Tomoe Hotaru Chan," the blonde gushed as she wrapped her arms around the oldest looking woman who was also one of the shortest people in the group. "Isn't she the cutest?" Minako demanded as the woman waved at them, not at all minding the blonde that hung off of her.

Setsuna smiled as Minako continued to cuddle Hotaru. "I see you guys got VIP tickets," the dark-haired woman smiled. "You must have met with _her_ then."

"Hm?" Nami asked surprised. "Who would have given us these tickets?"

Setsuna shared a mysterious smile with her companions. "I guess you'll see when the show begins."

Akina, who walked ahead of everyone, really didn't catch the last part of Setsuna's mysterious words and instead looked behind her impatiently when she realized everyone had let her go ahead by herself. "Hey, can you guys hurry up? We're already late!"

Laughing, everyone followed behind the grouchy Akina while her family sheepishly apologized for her rude behavior. But Makoto shook her head and Hotaru interrupted their apologies half-way. "She's going to be going through a lot more, later tonight," Hotaru replied vaguely, while looking sympathetically after the slouched figure of Kumada Akina's back. "Let her be a child for a little bit longer. There will be time for growing up, truly, when all the cards are laid out. When she hears our song, even her heart will not be able to deny what it feels."

Looking uncertain to what the dark-haired woman meant, the rest of the Kumada family could only follow these strange women's lead. Wherever they were led, there would be much to be revealed.

Outside the crowd was heard cheering as they stepped up to the front seats, right up on the stage in fact, overlooking the entire stage area. Apparently, the stairs they climbed brought them up to the second level of the man-made theater. "Oh my!" Nami blinked. "Isn't that the legendary Sea and Wind duet pair?"

"Yeah, Kai Michi and Wynd Haru." Hiroshi blinked in amazement at their electric piano and violin duet. "I heard that Wynd San will only play the baby grand for his partner. This must be a surprise appearance to have them play Fire's only unrecorded song." Dark eyes widened. "Isn't that Mars Reiko playing along the piano with him?"

"Him?" Hotaru giggled behind her hand. "Haru Papa would be pleased to hear that."

"Eh?" Hiroshi looked surprised at the dark-haired woman standing next to him.

"I'm Tomoe Hotaru," the older woman introduced herself again. "I'm the adoptive daughter of Michi Mama and Haru Papa. Setsuna Mama is also my adoptive mother, though not officially."

"All three of them?" Nami asked surprised, looking skeptically at the woman who looked older than her supposedly adoptive parents.

"Yes, they raised me." Hotaru put a hand to her chest with a nostalgic but happy expression on her face. "I'm very lucky to have such wonderful parents."

"The song's beautiful," Nami whispered in awe as her attention was caught by the silence as the cheers died down.

"Michi Mama and Haru Papa would be very glad to hear that you like it," Hotaru whispered in the darkness, her eyes glittering from the thousand fires of lit lighters and candles from the audience. "You'll be able to tell them yourself after the show."

"T-tell them, myself?" Nami asked surprised.

The music flowed over the crowd like wind and water, washing away worries and sadness, washing away tension and pain. It was a lovely moment as peace came over the entire stadium-like theater. Yet, underneath the soothing music was a hint of flame and fire, a burning pulse resounding from a single drum. "Who wrote this music?" Akina asked softly.

"Rei Chan collaborated with Haru— um— and Michi—" Minako explained, stumbling over the names a bit, but a dreamy expression came over her face. "No matter how many times I hear it, it's still like the first time." The blonde sighed happily.

When it was over, everyone in the audience felt the lingering affects as well as the longing for the song to continue forever. "Thank you, Haru San, Michi San," Mars Reiko grinned as she walked up to the front of the stage with the two artists beside her. They waved and bowed to the thunderous applause from the audience before exiting the stage. "I want to thank you for coming to see the first show on my promotional tour." Mars Reiko's eyes flashed like dark crystals beneath the stage light and her hair flew in the gathering breeze that ran over the stage.

"Mars Reiko—" Iku gasped. "She looks just like her mother! They're like twins!" Iku's children all looked surprised at this as they turned their head back to the women on stage.

"I wanted to share with you my new single but first, I want to sing you a song I've written that won't be coming out anytime soon... but I hope you'll lend an ear and listen. I've waited a long time to sing this song, for that special person that I wish with all my heart to hear it. I hope one day, wherever they are now, they will be able to hear my voice and it will dry the tears they must have been crying for such a long time in the darkness by themselves. I want them to no longer think that they are alone anymore. It took a long time for me to reach this point, but with the help of my friends and from all the support you guys, my wonderful fans, have given me, I think I'm finally ready for changes, once again, to enter my life."

_"Can you hear her crying?"_

The music began, but Akina was shocked. That voice, she knew that voice who asked her such a strange question in the crowded mall. It was the voice that was filled with calmness, even in the face of Akina's stormy tempers. Those eyes were the eyes that regarded her, stripping her bare of all her years. Akina remembered those eyes best, eyes she had not been able to see clearly at the hospital, or in the gathering darkness, through the gray rain that day at her father's funeral. They were eyes that gave a deep impression but whose powers only left one with the memory of a feeling and not concrete images. Now she felt the true pull of Mars Reiko's hypnotic gaze and the same pull from that voice that seemed to rise from the deepest recess of the woman's heart.

_"Can you hear her crying?"_

Those were not the words Mars Reiko sung, but the question hung in the air. And then, Akina heard once more the distant cries of someone else she did not know. Cries that were filled with sorrow that crashed against the hope in the voice of Mars Reiko's song. The song with words Akina could not comprehend herself, but the meaning of it was etched into her heart as each note was played out, bringing up with it, painful memories of ignorance and innocence lost.

And then, around her, the beautiful women she had just met joined in against the crying of a single voice. And they brought with them the joys and sorrows of their years, emotions Akina could not comprehend nor would have expected from such young and successful females. For in those voices were the sound of loss and forgiveness, hopes and love, and dreams that ended. Still, there was the sound of new dreams being born, the sound of hope renewed and friendships that were once lost, found.

Even without knowing the words, even if each syllable was choked from her constricted throat, Akina opened her lips and so did the people around her and below her – all around her. The stadium rocked with the sound of a thousand voices singing a melody that was ancient but true, a song that no words could transcend. And then silence as Mars Reiko's voice pierced the darkness, reaching out, grasping a hand that had stopped reaching for help and a soul that had forgotten hope. In that moment, Akina felt as if someone had grasped her own soul as well, and the true tears that held only sadness and joy, without the self-indulgence or pettiness that she had allowed herself to linger upon for so long, came unbidden.

_"Can you hear her crying?"_

There was only silence when the song ended. Stunned, Akina's lips still were opened partially in wonder. Akina was surprised that she had sung at all, as well as surprised by the emotion that had flowed through her, wetting her cheeks with trails of salty evidence. The concert began once more with more upbeat songs, but Akina felt as if the first moments were etched into her, burning like embers that were wakened into flames. And wherever the music pounded, she felt the woman she had suppressed deep inside flinging open her arms to the world to be consumed by the music that was heat and fire, a fire that burned away the masks she wore. Resentment, hatred, shame, fears, and anger was consumed so easily within her, leaving the rest of her naked and bare. Yet, the music made the awkwardness of such moments be left forgotten, and clothed her with the memories Akina had always cherished but had forgotten in her lamentations to the self. The weltering of self-pity subsided now to allow Akina to see clearly once more.

Akina began to laugh with those around her, shouting with joy, as tears of each emotion ran down her face as they had never done before. Exposed, Akina felt brand new, and willingly spread her arms over the audience below her and sang, sang with the freedom woken within her and the joy that soon followed in its wake.

Sang with the beautiful voice of Mars Reiko to guide her through the melody only her heart seemed to know.

_To be continued_...

* * *

**_Miko_**_ - Priestess_****

**_Mochi_** - _rice cake (so says my very small and very limited Japanese Dictionary -- that's not even really mine)_

**-**_ Akina woke up on the wrong side of the bed because I realized that it would be weird if she just changed over night. Anyway, she still has quite a grudge against Hiroshi for the night before, if I remember correctly._

_- If Akina had paid attention, she might have noticed that her taxi driver was a gajin – hence the reason why he lacked the polite stoicism in most Japanese._

- _Hino Rei, a.k.a._ _Mars Reiko's song is not wordless. It's just that no one can seem to remember the words when she's (and the rest of her audience) finished singing it. But everyone understands the emotion she's conveying in her songs on their own level. In both anime and manga, Hino Rei demonstrated a talent and fondness for music – the piano especially. I'm playing off of that in this story and adding a bit of magic to it. As people relate to Haruka's (Wynd Haru) playing to be like the wind and Michiru's (Kai Michi) to be like the ocean, I'm making Rei's songs like fire, the name of the band. Yeah, yeah, I'm not very original. I mean, come on! What did you expect? I named Makoto's restaurant "Jupiter", didn't I?_

- _CDs are only sold en masse in Tokyo now. I don't want to try to figure out new technology right now. The likelyhood that Hiroshi has a CD player is based on the fact that his father probably has one too, and because Rei does have Tokyo in mind, always, she probably specially instructed that there be CDs released along with everything else._

_- Akina did not remember Hino Rei's eyes because, as she said so herself, they're eyes that leave you with the impression of a feeling and not the look itself. Anyway, think of Rei's eyes like her music, the type that lingers but whose words you can't recall._

* * *

**_Special Thanks To:_****__**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She had to wade through my horrible grammar to help me polish this baby to perfection! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I would be so lost without you!_ [Dabs away tears of gratitude]


	8. Coda

**Disclaimer:** You should know this by now.

**Time:** _This story is occurring in the winter of 2041._

**Warnings:** This is **_not_** an AU. It is a post Galaxia fanfiction about what I now call **_The One Hundred Year Sleep_**. This might very well turn into a series under the name I've used to dub the period of time this, and later stories, occur within. I'm treating this time of "_sleep_" to metaphorically describe a time period where the Senshi are trying to get themselves together (in this story, only one person is even close to being labeled as in a sleeping status, **_maybe_**). The reality of it is that Rome was not built within a day (and that was not even close to being labeled as a Utopia). The period may not even be exactly one hundred years; it too is used as a metaphor for this time period.

**Summary:** _Kumada__ Akina has just lost her Father, Kumada Yuuichiro, to disease and age. However, on his death bed he requested to not be buried with his prestigious ancestors but to have his ashes placed at a Tokyo shrine. From there on out, a trip to Tokyo for the family from Kobe will force Akina to face a few flaws in her character and discover a city of ghosts. There, through the memory of others, Akina will learn the bonds of friendship and family, one that she had forsaken long ago in her silent anger at a father she loved and hated above all others._

* * *

**Things That Change**

by Blue Jeans

_"__I have honored the things I could not change, _

_but__ tried to, anyway. _

_And in the end, I identified my rewards_

_from__ what I have tried_

_and__ not from the things I have _

_changed__.__"___

**Chapter 8**

**_Coda_**__

On the platform they shook hands with each woman. Kumada Akina got to talk to Mars Reiko for the first time the evening before and they spent breakfast through to lunch together, along with Mars Reiko's friends. Each woman was truly unique, amazing and incredibly accomplished in her own way. Akina learned of Makoto's crippled legs but the brunette seemed to be fine, even if she had to use the silver crutches for many things. Kino Makoto really held a surprising amount of determination, along with a very honest and genuine smile. The brunette's dexterity with her supports was also surprising, accomplishing simple tasks that Akina had always taken for granted, in clever ways that left the Kumadas in awe at first at quite a few of the things the brunette did.

Kumada Iku was unable to get over the fact that Mars Reiko looked so much like her supposed mother. The dark-haired woman was surprised by Iku's appearance as well, but hid it well. They ended up clasping hands, Reiko, having clasped Iku's wrinkled hands in her own, kept her emotions wrapped up behind a smile. "I've heard a lot about you," Mars Reiko said with her eyes filled with something that no one could name. "You were truly a worthy rival. In the end, I'm so glad that it was you who won his heart. I-- I don't think my mother would have been as devoted. Still, everything ended as it should, hm?"

Iku was dazed and confused but happy at those words. The other, however, did not recognize that the strange shine in Mars Reiko's gaze was due to unshed tears as those dark, familiar eyes regarded Iku's own. The old woman knew the meaning of those enigmatic words well, but it was surprising coming from such a young and accomplished woman as Mars Reiko herself. Understanding the past was not something Iku's children did very well, but it was the past for a reason. "Thank you," Iku answered. The other really was at a loss of words for what else to say. Mars Reiko was more than happy to assure the Kumada family that she would take care of everything after Iku told her of Kumada Yuuichiro's final wish. The dark-haired woman was entirely too confident over the fact that she knew exactly what Kumada Yuuichiro meant. Still, they had done what they had came to Tokyo to do, and Kumada Iku relaxed considerably under the reassurance of the young woman she was sure to be the daughter of Hino Rei, a woman Iku had once admired and envied with great intensity as a girl.

Hiroshi got his signatures from Kai Michi, Wynd Haru, and Mars Reiko. Aino Minako flirtingly gave him a kiss that his sisters both caught on camera. Akina kept hers with an arrogant smirk, threateningly declaring that she would one day show it to Yudayo Hikaru -- Kumada Hiroshi's long time girlfriend. Mars Reiko was also in the picture, giving a wink and a mysterious smile that she was so well known for to her fans and it was that picture that Mars Reiko signed with a wicked grin of her own when she handed it to an extremely perplexed Hiroshi.

The Kumada family was given a huge picnic basket from the beaming Makoto, whom Nami discovered was the actual owner of the exclusive restaurant Jupiter. But Nami was sworn to secrecy with such knowledge and given a few recipes from the brunette herself in return for Nami's loyalty. Mizuno Ami and Tomoe Hotaru spoke of the research they were doing and exchanged numbers with the females of the Kumada family. Ami told them that if they were ever in need of serious medical aid, to give her a call should she be in the area.

Only when they got home did the surprised Hidekai Kiyoshi inform them that Mizuno Ami was a very renowned doctor in the field of medicine and research for artificial limbs, as well as the reconstruction of both muscle tissues and bones. Nami laughingly waved him away when he lamented the fact that he wasn't able to go with them on such a wonderful adventure if they were able to meet such amazing people.

Mars Reiko pressed a slim envelope into Akina's hand at the very last moment, and smiled at the other reassuringly when Akina gave her a questioning stare. Reiko only shook her head in response as Akina looked down at her hands. The dark-haired singer gently closed Akina's fingers over the envelope. "Read it when you're alone," Reiko instructed her. "It's a secret, and I trust you with it. Please, because in your eyes, I owe you and even such debts shall best be paid as soon as possible. It's— It's from a very old woman who had loved your father very much, in her own ways."

With that strange parting, they said their final goodbyes. This time, Mars Reiko did not say they would meet again, only that she wished Akina and her family the best in life. Ironically, this time, Akina was saddened by the fact that this may be the last time she would be able to speak to such an amazing woman with equally amazing friends. Still, without further ado, the train doors closed and Tokyo quickly grew smaller and smaller in the distance, left behind them as it seemed to have been left behind in time. Tokyo was a city of memories, one that refused to change. But Akina would remember it forever instead as the city that changed her more than she had thought a place could change a person.

It was a strange five day vacation. A lot more happened in that time period than Akina could have dreamt were possible. Exhausted from the whole ordeal, she fell into a deep sleep on the way home to Kobe. It was a strange relief, but they were all filled with nostalgia already at the fact that their adventure of a lifetime was over. Still, Akina knew she would remember this trip forever. This special journey would forever be kept close to her heart, as would the song that Mars Reiko sang the night before.

_"...our song..."_ Kino Makoto's voice came drifting back to her ears. _Yes_, Akina acknowledged, _it was their song_. It was a song against the great sadness and tears of the world, a song of hope and love and friendship that endured the test of time.

It was the song of life and hope, change and growing up. It was _their_ song.

**- - - - -**

"I don't think she understood everything we've told her." Mizuno Ami said observantly from her perch on the train bench.

"That's okay." Kino Makoto waved the other off as she leaned a bit more heavily on one silver crutch. "She's not really supposed to. If she knew everything, we'd have to kill her!" Makoto joked as she made a sweeping motion with her crutch, using it like a staff or sword in the direction of Kobe.

Aino Minako raised a brow. "That was not very funny, Mako Chan," their blonde friend admonished. "Only I can make such tasteless jokes with a straight face."

"Rei Chan, you okay with this?" Tomoe Hotaru asked the dark-haired woman who stared still into the empty horizon where the train disappeared.

"Yes," Rei sighed a bit sadly. "I just didn't realize how much time had passed till I saw Iku San again. Back then, we were both so young, her younger than me even. In my mind, Yuuichiro and she were frozen in time one way and when I saw him dying then... and her now, it's all very strange. She was so filled with energy, but now... I was surprised by how much she had aged." Hino Rei smiled sadly down as she viewed her own smooth hands. "I didn't want to tell her a lie. Somehow, it hurts for me to say such things."

"You must have loved Yuuichiro San very much," Hotaru observed.

"That slacker?" Minako demanded heatedly. "He can't steal my Rei Chan's heart so easily after all this time!"

"Mina-ko!" Rei growled and brushed away the blonde coldly. "Don't hang onto me so much," Rei added as she turned an equally cold shoulder to be presented in annoyance.

"Rei Chan," Minako sniffled as she dabbed her eyes dramatically with a handkerchief, "your affections are so painful and cruel sometimes."

Exasperated, Rei threw her hands up and tried to escape the trailing Minako. "They seem to be having fun," Makoto said, smiling ruefully from where she was leaning. "I wish I could move so freely once more."

"I told you to use that wheelchair," Mizuno Ami admonished the brunette. "You've been really straining yourself lately. If you want my advice, you should save up your energy so we can begin testing those adjusters I made for you instead of having to rely on the crutches again."

Makoto only grinned at her friend without much of a care. "I'm glad to see you back again, Ami Chan. We've really missed you, all of us."

Ami paused in her admonishing of the brunette and looked up at the other in surprise. "Really?" she asked in a very small voice and rubbed her suddenly tearing eyes when Makoto nodded. More tears spilled out as Ami pulled in a ragged breath. "I really... missed all of you too!" Ami said through her tears, happiness shining on her face as well as relief.

"You okay?" Rei asked worriedly and Minako echoed her best friend's concern once they saw the usually composed Ami sobbing on the bench.

"I'm wonderful," Ami said, grinning. "Absolutely wonderful!" Minako and Rei exchanged confused glances but chose wisely not to push for more answers.

"Now that the winds of change are picking up again," Ten'ou Haruka smirked from the shadows at the drama before her, "I think _she_ will be showing up again soon. That odango-atama, I really did miss her after all."

"Things are finally changing around here," Kaiou Michiru agreed next to her lover. "I can't wait for this to be over so I can stop using tacky names to be in the business of entertainment."

"Rei, can you see again?" Meiou Setsuna asked curiously, adjusting the goggles she wore with a wince at the bright sunlight.

Hino Rei turned her gaze to the horizon, bare and dark with unknown possibilities. "Yes," Rei answered in one surprising moment. "After all this time, my vision is finally returning. It's a slow process, but very soon we'll be able to look into the future once more. It'll be a much harder road ahead, but I am really looking forward to it." Rei smiled cheerfully at this. "Nowadays, though, I don't know if I will want to look to see what is to come even when the sight is given back to me." Rei said the last part softly to herself.

Setsuna nodded in understanding. "I am also regaining my sense of Time and the flowing currents once more. The deep sleep is still in session, but alas, it is slowly coming to an end. Forty-one years... who would have thought so short of a time could be so long?"

"We've been struggling in place all this time," Michiru agreed. "It'll be nice to be able to move forward once more."

"When I sang, I held onto her hands for the first time in a long time," Rei recalled with her eyes closed in remembrance. "Her tears are still flowing, but her pain is bleeding away at last." Rei held her hands close to her heart and raised her face to the sunlit skies. "Thank you, everyone, for helping me out back there on stage. I don't think anyone heard her tears except _that_ girl. But finally, finally there is a light after having stumbled so long in the darkness."

"Change is definitely lifting the stagnant air all around us," Haruka grinned as she winked and gave a thumbs-up to her friends. "And now we can stretch again and have some real fun!"

Aino Minako tightly wrapped her arms around Hino Rei then, and for once, the dark-haired woman let herself be held without a word of complaint. "I think," the blonde woman muttered into the silky material of Rei's winter jacket, "I'm ready to face Artemis again."

Rei smiled at this slightly and grasped the forearms of Minako with a firm and reassuring grip. "I think I too am ready to face him with you, Mina Chan." Rei grinned as a light sparked in Minako's eyes at the mention of this. "And then, we can try to make that bridge again between those two stubborn cats." Minako's eyes darkened with emotions even as her mouth quirked in answer to Rei's rueful smile. "I think it's been long enough since fate has separated those two, don't you agree? It's what Grandfather would advise me to do if he was in his right mind." Rei rolled her eyes in exasperation at the mention of a particular ghost haunting a particular shrine (and the women that visited there).

Minako could only nod as she buried her face into Rei's shoulder blades, hiding her overwhelming smile of joy. "Yes," the blonde answered fervently. "Oh, yes!"

**- - - - -**

Akina had never been so glad to see her apartment. After Lesta Gin nearly tackled her in the airport and gave a full report of all the wonderful things Akina had missed at the Luminarie, the dark-haired young woman seriously began to doubt if she was really going to give her best friend the present she had bought for Lesta for the New Year. Still, it was nice to see her boyfriend had behaved himself while she was gone, and he was very affectionate with her. For once, Akina had allowed such affections to be received and her boyfriend hid his surprise as well as his gladness for the change expertly.

Akina realized that she really might have changed when she was in Tokyo. Normally, she wouldn't have let Wataka Matsuyo drive her back to her apartment, even though they had been dating for a month. But today, she let him do a lot of things she usually would have refused without a second thought. Today, when he got close to kiss her softly goodnight, she didn't say a word against it. And Matsuya smiled that smile that had convinced Akina to go out with him in the first place as he hugged her goodbye and left.

"Did I really mistrust everyone so much?" Akina asked herself softly after she had bid Matsuyo goodnight for the day and entered her apartment. She was more than ready to turn in as she left her luggage at the door of her apartment, too tired to move them in any further than her own doorstep. Akina paused in front of her bed and remembered the note that Reiko had given to her. Akina had taken it out of her pant pocket when she was undressing to take a bath. "Hm." She looked down at the crumpled envelope sheepishly. "I guess I'll read this when I'm done with the bath."

She scrubbed herself clean and wondered what Mars Reiko could have written to her that the other had not already said before. What secrets did this woman want to share with her, when it wasn't so long ago that she had attacked the said woman for being there at her father's funeral? Still, Akina thought as she toweled off and walked back tiredly into her bedroom to prepare to sleep, it was very strange to be given a letter.

Sitting on her bed, she carefully opened the flap and pulled out a single piece of paper. "Wow, short secret," Akina said to herself out loud, and began to read it. By the time she was done, tears had gathered into her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Each word was painfully filled with emotion, as was each tear that Akina found herself shedding for a woman her mother both admired and envied, the woman who was a truly worthy rival. But still, through the pain, there was still an endless amount of hope and longing for the next day to come even with past regrets that lingered silently in the background. Akina, though, was slowly learning that the worth of regret was like everything else in life: the amount it demands is always the amount one thought it was worth, no more and no less.

"I guess, I was not the only one afraid of getting too close and being burned." Akina put down the letter. "That explains a lot," Akina sighed as she looked down at the letter sitting next to her again. "I guess Reiko San just wanted to remind me of my father, mother, and her own mother's mistakes. What an idiot her mother was," Akina sighed again. "In the end, we both ended up the fool."

She went to bed with the letter clutched close to her heart. This woman, Hino Rei, who was once a lot like her... or perhaps it was she, Akina, who was a lot like this woman... In the end, even Akina found herself being sucked in by that woman's lingering presence from the past, a presence that had haunted her father's heart till the day he died. It was a tiring night for such realizations though, so Akina drifted to sleep with such thoughts racing through her head.

That night Akina dreamt of a pale-haired woman who smiled through unending tears. She dreamt of Aino Minako kneeling and touching the pale woman's hair with a gentle reassurance, backed by all the women Akina had said goodbye to at the train station, including Mars Reiko. All of the women were dressed in strange armored clothing except for the one who was crying. That night, Akina also dreamt of the soft, wordless song she had heard at the concert. Mars Reiko was singing alone by herself on an empty stage, a bright flame in the darkness, as her voice echoed all throughout the stadium and then the world.

_One day, we will all have to change, and when that time comes, I hope that I will find that same song in my heart that resides in your own, Mars Reiko San_. Akina slept and dreamt of change that night with that thought echoing in every corner of her dreams. And in place of Mars Reiko on that stage, it was herself, singing into the darkness with her rougher voice and awkward ways. But, in her heart, Akina knew that someday, someone will hear the honest emotions in the words she sang and to them, the melody would be beautiful.

_As ageless and as beautiful as the flame is to the moth...___

_...and as close as the beatings of the heart to the fire._

**_The End_**

* * *

__

**_-_**_ This story is set in the future. Around 2041 – Hino Rei is now 63 years of age. However, she only looks 22 years of age._

**_-_** _I did not feel like actually dictating what Rei wrote to Akina. I just wanted to give the sense of Akina's impression from that letter. Sometimes it's better to be vague._

**_-_**_ The blood types are there because it is used to define people in Japan and a lot of people ask about such things during the first meeting. I avoided it because this is set in a futuristic fanfiction, but I still wanted to hint at its importance. I've read somewhere – I think in the author's commentary in one of the volumes in the Kare Kano manga – that in Japan, Blood Type O people are the rare ones on that island, so hence the reason why you can see the O type people are not dominant in the characters. (Unlike in the West where the O-type is most dominant.) I tried to model the personalities somewhat to the blood types while keeping the people still as individuals._

**_-_** _In honor of Yumeko-san, my wonderful editor, I shall given an answer to you guys about the things that bothered her the most about the story at the end. Yumeko-san posed me two questions at the end of this fanfiction: (1) Which sister visited Tokyo without anyone knowing it (including the character herself)? And (2) Why was Akina the only one able to hear the crying? My answer: Sequel. v LOL!_

**_-_**_ Again, I strongly suggest that you read the end notes, there's a quirky little omake at the end. It's not explicit, just a bit of perverse fun on your author's part. I blame it on being possessed by Grandpa's lecherous spirit!_

**_Special Thanks To:_****__**

_My editor, Yumeko San! She really made this project what it is today! Thank you so much Yumeko San! I, and the characters in this tale, would be very lost without you. And though, as readers, you may not see the wonderful work she has done, I assure you that she has done wonders! Not just grammatically, but when my characters were out of line, she pointed the fact out to this otaku-writer. This project is where it is today because of her. [Yumeko-san writes under the alias Heavenly Pearl, feel free to check out her writings! Her latest work is **Spirit of Fire** (another wonderful original character piece, centered on Hino Rei's parents). Feel free to check her out, and leave her reviews! She deserves lots of presents and cookies for her hard work!]_

_Starsea__ also deserves thanks. She readily helped me when I had asked her for it. The Michiru/Setsuna scene would not have been as wonderful without her._

_And thank you, readers, for reading. I hoped you had enjoyed this ball of yarn!_

_– Blue Jeans_

* * *

**Q and A:**

__

_**-** **Anhthy** (since you did not leave me an email address): Iku does **not**, in **any** way, looks like Rei. She states that Reiko looks like her "mother" -- Hino Rei -- because that's the lie that Minako told the Kumadas, that Mars Reiko is Hino Rei's daughter. Iku says (and I quote), "Mars Reiko—" Iku gasped. "She looks just like her mother! They're like twins!" I hope that clears up the confusion._

_**-** **kuyaga **(might as well answer them all now)**:** The ghosts do not leave earth, as Grandpa explained to Iku in chapter 6. Masakazu says (and once again, I quote) "But, you do not feel this pull that all ghosts in Tokyo feel. You do not understand the flow as I and many others of the dead community understand. It is not time yet for this old soul to leave this old place. There are memories that must be maintained till the time comes for the memories to be forgotten and we, from ghosts to people, are wakened from our years of sleep."_


	9. End Notes

**

* * *

WARNING: Do _NOT_ read this unless you have read the _ENTIRE_ _Things That Change_ Fanfiction. It will contain things that you will _not_ understand fully until you do _finish_ reading the story. And Spoilers, we must not forget the spoilers. You have been warned.**

**__**

* * *

**_Things That Change: Bonus Information_**

* * *

**Omake:**

_[A scene from the final chapter of Things That Change: Located at the train station after the Kumada family has left...]_

**Rei**: I haven't been home for awhile! I think we should have an orgy... to uh... celebrate my return!

**Ami**: I can't. After all these years, I'm still a prude. But I think your attempt to obtain more perverted, male readers was a seriously underhanded and simple scheme. Really, Rei Chan, I didn't expect it from you to deal such a low blow to our once polished reputation—

**Minako**: And that's why I don't like you, Ami Chan. It's not because of that stupid grudge reason that everyone _thinks_ is the reason... I mean, what were they doing "_thinking_"? Do I look like a character that's supposed to make sense? Sheesh! So what if you abandoned us and betrayed us and left us all behind? It's not so bad. You came crawling back, anyway. I just can't understand how after all this time you can still be such a killjoy! How the hell can you still be a prude after going to the West? Do you know what they do in the West? They have sex tapes and sex television, and sex everything! Don't you know the saying that sex is in the air over there?

**Rei**: That's "_Love is in the air_", Mina Chan. And I think you're over-simplifying again.

**Minako**: [_weepy eyed to Rei_] Whose side are you on anyway?

**Rei**: ... [_shrugs_]

**Makoto**: We do have Hentai featuring us here (and in the West)! I hear Sailor Venus and Sailor V are both... [_clears her throat suspiciously here_] ...very "_popular"_.

**Minako**: [_whispers to Makoto conspiratorially_] Yeah, and Ami Chan does some weird, kinky stuff in many of those too... who'd have thought!

**Rei**: [_also whispering_] Yeah, and you and Usagi too! Mina Chan, I didn't know you went that way!

**Minako**: [_GASP_] You're my one and only, Rei Chan! You must believe me! [_WAILS_]

**Rei**: Cut the dramatics, sheesh! I'm beautiful, there's plenty of me for everyone...

**Minako**: "Yes! Oh, yes!" ...Hey, didn't I use this line before?

**Ami**: It wasn't kinky the last time you used it, Mina Chan. [_sweatdrop_]

**Minako**: Gosh, I don't see how that could have worked out... I mean, just _look_ at it!

**Makoto**: Yeah, it seems like one of those Hentai films you were in.

**Minako**: [_whispers to Rei_] Didn't know Mako Chan watches those stuff, but that explains a lot of her attacks.

**Makoto**: [_LOOMING_] Look who's talking WhipGirl2041!

**Minako**: I'll have you know I like that screen name. It _is_ a part of my powers you know?

**Makoto**: [_points an accusing and triumphant finger at Minako_] Exactly!

**Minako**: ... [_not getting it so blankly stares at Makoto's finger... starts getting ideas..._]

**Rei**: [_tired of being ignored_] This isn't going anywhere, now... about that orgy...

**Outers**: [_backing away_] Don't look at us... we're all taken... except Setsuna.

**Michiru**: [_to Haruka_] Not very surprising really. Looking at her track record, her agendas been clear for centuries... [_shudders at the thought_]

**Haruka**: [_to Michiru_] Yeah, talk about a dry spell [_the only one to laugh at her own joke... then to Hotaru_] Don't follow her bad example, okay our little Hime Chan?

**Hotaru**: [_trustingly staring up at her Haruka Papa_] Alright, Haruka Papa!

**Setsuna**: [_Glaring at Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru_] Traitors!

**Haruka**: [_to Michiru_] Never have I been so glad that I'm taken in all of my life! Those "Inner" kiddies got no experience. I mean, don't let the name fool you [_is again, the only one to laugh at her own joke_] but I wouldn't want--

**Minako**: [_to the surprised but fuming Inners_] Let's sick 'em girls!

**Michiru**: [_to Haruka_] You are _so_ sleeping on the couch after this one!

**Hotaru**: ... [_starts running cause she's prudent... anyway, she's not getting paid for this one_]

**Haruka**: [_wicked grin_] Well, it's not like I'll be sleeping alone after this!

**Michiru**: [_sweatdrop_] Idiot...

**Luna and Artemis (_two ghostly cats trying to lift a sign with their ghostly paws, but they kept going through everything, sometimes even the concrete they're sitting on_)**: [_Sign Reads_] Give us some love! (_2X_)

**Luna**: [_to Artemis_] This really sucks, where's my role in this? My contract clearly states a role in "_Things That Change_"!

**Artemis**: [_a little relieved_] At least they mentioned me _happy_ and I didn't get abused, not even once!

**Luna**: I demanded an explanation!

**Artemis**: [_attention wonders already_] Oh, oh, that's nice... [_staring at the "Senshi Orgy"_] Oh... [_suddenly gets very depressed_] they never allow me any hands on fun!

**Luna**: H-E-N-T-A-I! [_smacks Artemis_]

**Artemis**: [_purrs_] Oh yeah, right there, baby!

**Luna**: ... [_sweatdrop_]

[--End--] ( Now or never… [_sweatdrop_] )

* * *

****

**The Family Trees of Original Characters:**

**Hidekai family:**

**Hidekai Kiyoshi** - Nami's finance (Blood Type A)

**Hidekai Miki** - Kiyoshi's younger brother (Blood Type O)

**Hidekai Kyoko** - Kiyoshi's cousin (Blood Type A)

**Kumada family:**

**Kumada Yuuichiro**

**Kumada/Haruko Iku** - Kumada Yuuichiro's wife (Blood Type AB)****

**Kumada Nami** - Yuuichiro's oldest daughter (Blood Type A)

**Kumada Akina** - Yuuichiro's youngest daughter (middle child) (Blood Type B)

**Kumada Hiroshi** - Yuuichiro's youngest son and child (Blood Type A)

**Lesta family:**

**Lesta Gin** - Akina's best friend; a computer whiz who wants to design computer games in the future with the big boys (Russian/Japanese descendant) (Blood Type O)

**Matsuko family:**

**Matsuko Masakazu **- Hino Rei's Grandfather and the resident ghost at the Hikawa Jinja (Not a original character). He was also sent away by his granddaughter to attend to Yuuichiro's father's death during the Great Battle in 2000 but came home earlier than expected that evening when the show-down occurred.****

**Matsuko Sakura** - Hino Rei's Grandmother, died when her daughter was still in high school

**Hino/Matsuko Yumiko** - Hino Rei's mother and daughter of Matsuko Masakazu and Sakura. She was possessed by a spirit since she was a babe and all the way up to when she gave birth to her daughter. (It is believed that this was the spirit of the unborn Mars) It gave Yumiko split personalities because Yumiko was a very gentle and kind person, and her spirit was too weak to handle the fire of Mars' gift and curse. After Rei's birth, Yumiko no longer had a problem of being possessed, but because of this, Hino Rei's father feared Rei and loved her and hated her above all others. (Not an original character per se, she was mentioned very briefly in the manga.)****

**Wataka family:**

**Wataka Matsuyo** - Akina's boyfriend (Blood Type O)

**Yudayo family:**

**Yudayo Hikaru** - Hiroshi's girlfriend (Blood Type B)

* * *

**Status of the Senshi:******

**Kino Makoto (Sailor Jupiter)** was injured severely enough during the event of the year 2000 to have lost the use of her legs. Mizuno Ami was referring to this event as Makoto's punishment. Kino Makoto is the owner of the famous and extremely successful restaurant-chain, "_Jupiter_". (Well, she's Sailor Jupiter and I wasn't feeling particularly creative the day I wrote about her restaurant.) Lately, Makoto's been thinking of opening a flower/tea shop as well since she has the money now to accomplish her girlhood dreams. She's been trying to be as positive as she can for the rest of her friends, especially since Minako and Ami have both been punishing themselves. However, being busy with her restaurants and planning the opening of her new shop, she has not had time to really be there for anyone, especially in her condition. Hino Rei's tour gave her the perfect excuse to see everyone again after all this time. _[Makoto was the first of the Inner Senshi to lose her powers.]_

**Aino Minako (Sailor Venus)** eventually gave up her dream to be an idol and took up residency with Hino Rei at the Hikawa Jinja after her father's death. She did not speak to her mother even when the woman was on her deathbed. This was what she meant about regret when she was speaking to Akina, as well as the regret and guilt she feels over Artemis' death as well. Ami and her sustained a few serious but no life threatening injuries during the event of 2000. Their guilt for that time has left them perhaps the most immobile of all the Senshi. Because of her role as the leader, Minako is still having a hard time dealing with her failures of that time. She's given up her dreams as a punishment to herself. The events up to this point in the story have dampened the usually bubbly blonde, and at the start of this story she was feeling a bit depressed and lonely -- hence the sudden chatter-box effect upon seeing the Kumada family. Minako depends greatly on Rei and they've only became closer because of everything they had seen and been through together. Especially after Artemis' death, Rei is the one person most important to Minako. Minako is a lot more animated around Rei and when the other leaves on tour, Minako finds it easy to fall into a depression but she tries very hard to move on and change as well. Of all of the Senshi, she's the one who's most angered and hurt by Ami's decision to leave the country after the event in 2000 (especially since after the fiasco of 2000, she was beginning to feel especially close to Ami). At the end of this story, Minako is still feeling slightly betrayed by Ami but she wants to put on a cheerful face for Rei and everyone. Eventually the two will most likely have to talk over this, but at this time, the issue remains unresolved. _[Minako is the last to lose her powers as a Senshi.]_

**Hino Rei (Sailor Mars)** lost her ability to predict the future and is considered "blind". She became a singer in an attempt to change the situation that never seems to change since the event 41 years ago. Mizuno Ami was referring to this loss of sight to be Rei's punishment. Hino Rei also became a singer in hopes of forcing Minako to move on, but at this point, the blond has been an introvert about the entire situation. However, things are changing slowly after the visit of the Kumada family. The song Hino Rei sang at the concert that made everyone sing is the only song she has not recorded, because it is used for the sole purpose of awakening Serenity -- Tsukino Usagi. The song is about hope, but there is also sadness because it details the despair that fell on everyone after Usagi's disappearance. The break between Hino Rei and Kumada Yuuichiro is not well known, but for her defense, before the event of 2000, Hino Rei had sent Yuuichiro away to attend to his estranged parents so that he could also avoid the great battle. She did love him greatly, but pushed him into Iku's arms because her knowledge of all the things to come. In a way, because Hino Rei never trusted men to begin with, she did not want to test Yuuichiro's loyalties and see if he would stay with a woman who could not age while he did -- so she chose not to seek him out in the years after the event in 2000. However, at his death bed, she went to see him one last time. (On his birthday, she always drops by to check on him -- with or without his knowledge.) As Iku had said, after all the years of separation, he still loved her and for that, before Yuuichiro's death, Hino Rei told him the truth of her feelings even though she did not tell her reason of why she did not age and why she pushed him away. Yuuichiro did not ask but he died happy knowing that the person he had cared for most in the world returned his feelings even after 41 years of separation. _[Rei lost her powers soon after Makoto had lost hers.]_

**Mizuno Ami (Sailor Mercury)** still became a doctor but chose to study abroad in Germany after the event in 2000. Her decision estranged her from the others but it seems that she's been forgiven of that slight now that she has returned. Mizuno Ami and Tomoe Hotaru have joined forces to try to figure out how to cure Kino Makoto of her inability to walk on her own through medical research. Mizuno Ami, in the story has just returned to Tokyo after 41 years of absence. She still has trouble dealing with her failures in that event. Hence, unlike Minako who is constantly punishing herself, she ran away in hopes of forgetting the pain and moving on. Of everyone, she was the first to leave Tokyo, Japan in hopes of change. However, of everyone, Ami is the one who dreams of the fiasco of 2000 the most and though she was the first to leave, of everyone, she is the most haunted. Ami is the only one who consistently visits Luna's ghost, but no one knows this. (Minako and Rei did once together, and Minako visited Luna once by herself, but though Minako did visit Artemis more, she stopped abruptly around 2019 when she stopped pursuing her idol dream.) To say Ami moved on would be to say Minako moved on, but both of them still have deep issues to resolve within themselves and between each other. (This story does not touch upon that though, maybe a side story for later...?) _[Ami is third person to lose her Senshi powers amongst the Inners.]_

**Kaiou Michiru (Sailor ****Neptune****)** and **Ten'ou Haruka (Sailor Uranus)** are still in the entertainment business. They leave, change their looks every few years and their names as well to remain where they'd always been. Ten'ou Haruka no longer races, but likes to have a good spin on the tracks with her cars. They had retired from the entertainment world for over a decade before returning a year before Rei's break into the music world. The three of them have decided to join forces on tour this time around for Rei's newly released singles. At the concert in Tokyo they had hoped that they would be able to reach Serenity; surprisingly they had accomplished the feat for the first time since 2000. Tsukino Usagi has not yet been found, but wherever she was, she is beginning to waken to the call of her friends and protectors. (If you want to argue this point on the "entertainment business" or on how Michiru and Haruka would find it difficult to not age in the public eye, let me point out that there are a lot of pop artists that look alike and sound alike at this moment. I think with their looks changed they could still play whatever they pleased and people would just write it off as having similar music styles and such. Anyway, who'd think that the two are the same as the musicians 41 years before? Immortality doesn't exist, right? 6) _[The two had not changed into Senshi since the event of 2000 so whether or not they still have their powers is unknown and if they don't, the date they had lost it is also unknown.] Side note: I have broken the rule of calling Michiru Michi and Haruka Haru (but I gave good reason!)_

**Meiou Setsuna (Sailor Pluto)** is a fashion designer and is on vacation when she decided to visit Aino Minako. Meiou Setsuna is also funding a group of scientists to do research on astronomy at a lab she once worked at around the time of the event in the year 2000. Because she had lost her sense of Time after the event in 2000, she herself has changed. Setsuna, prior to 2000 did not have an actual chance to live normally... She is also the first of all the Sailor Senshi that has lost the ability to transform but has not been able to age like everyone else. (Setsuna actually lost her powers before the last battle of 2000) The binds on her powers, as opposed to everyone else's, are perhaps the strongest. Due to the incident in 2000, Meiou Setsuna's physical sight has been made sensitive to any type of harsh lighting -- in a way her eyes cannot handle light very well at all and Meiou Setsuna became very close to being blind as time went on. (At this moment, because of the strain on her eye sight, Meiou Setsuna was forced to take a break from the fashion industry. For a couple of years now she has designed in the background since her eye-sight forced her to avoid walking the runway at the end of her shows. This has earned herself quite the mysterious stigma in the fashion world.) Because of the ironies in life and the fact that she was not able to even fight in the crucial last battle, Setsuna was perhaps the most changed of all the Senshi. Setsuna has a side story coming up to explain better why she has changed so much and why she is now, always smiling. Check out this upcoming fic that's being "**_tentatively_**" called: _A Side Story to Things That Change: A Smile Till Happiness_.

**Tomoe Hotaru (Sailor Saturn)** has followed Mizuno Ami into the field of medicine and is currently the head of Kyoto's best hospital. She came to visit Tokyo on hearing that Rei was doing her tour, starting at Tokyo. She's helping Mizuno Ami to try to figure out a way to not only help Kino Makoto to walk again, but also many others as well. At this moment, Tomoe Hotaru's original healing powers have disappeared. She can, however, still transform into Sailor Senshi Saturn (as the only Senshi that can transform) which puzzles her friends greatly. At this moment, she has not gained eternal youth like the others, and is the only "civilian" in the group. This is her first resurrection since Tsukino Usagi's disappearance (Hotaru was also missing for over two decades), and she changed her birth name over to Tomoe Hotaru of her own free will once she had began to remember -- having to seek out the others as well after her "death" in the last battle. (For awhile Hotaru was MIA along with Usagi and Mamoru before her return to the living.) Even though the rest of the Senshi have assured her they did not mind her name being different, Tomoe Hotaru did it anyway, stating that it was the best lifetime she had had of all the ones she's lived. Apparently, Tsukino Usagi's powers were not able to affect her physically as it did the others though. Hotaru is also the only one married of the group, and the only one who had regularly dated before that. Because of the immortality stigma that is probably hindering a lot of interactions going on between normal people and the Senshi, Hotaru is the only one having healthy human interactions on a daily basis (not counting the work place) of all of them. (I'm expecting a really short side-story from Hotaru too, but it may just end up as part of something else entirely... I'm feeling unusually inspired... it's all that manga reading! I swear!)

**Tsukino Usagi**'s **(Sailor Moon; Princess Serenity)** status is still unknown (and has not been known since 2000). She's in Tokyo, but the Senshi are only aware of her spiritual presence. Where exactly is the princess located at this moment? Everyone can only guess. Most of the Senshi doubt Usagi is in a "living" state even. However, because of Akina and Nami's combined observations, the Senshi believe that she has been dormant somewhere all this time and has been reliving memories. Because of the events 41 years ago and the power exuded then, most likely, Tsukino Usagi has subjected the whole of Tokyo to those memories, forcing the city to remain the same and making any changes difficult.

**Chiba**** Mamoru**'s** (Tuxedo Kamen Sama; Prince Endymion)** current status is MIA after the event in 2000. Because his body was not retrieved from the little wreckage there was 41 years ago (not that there were much to begin with), no one is certain about his current status and since nobody's seen his ghost, the Senshi don't know where to start looking for him. One of the reasons the Senshi think Tsukino Usagi has yet to reveal herself and is constantly crying -- as Hino Rei can hear (after losing her "sight") -- is because of his supposed death and disappearance. Because neither his nor Usagi's ghosts have been seen in the streets of Tokyo, the Senshi are hoping they both survived the event somehow.

**Luna** and **Artemis** are the two guardian cats that definitely did not survive the event in 2000. At least Luna had not. Artemis did, but died of internal injuries very soon after. Their ghosts are still present in Tokyo. For more information, check out the side story that deals with this that is currently being "**_tentatively_**" called: _A Side Story to Things That Change: From the Riverbanks of the Milky Way_.

* * *

_Thank you for reading!_

_--blue_


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